


All The Wealth Between These Walls (Will Never Buy The Thing Called Love)

by Smiley5494



Series: The Persephone Universe [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 9 chapters in and I've just made it to Vietnam, A Vietnam Interlude is coming up, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Hargreeves siblings, BAMF Persephone, Canon LGBTQ Character, Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical language, Dave and Klaus are getting married, David Katz deserves the world, Diego Hargreeves is Bad at Feelings, Don't Like Don't Read, Eudora Patch will live and that's a promise, Everyone Is Gay, Fix-It of Sorts, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Good Brother Diego Hargreeves, Good Brother Klaus Hargreeves, Good Brother Luther Hargreeves, Good Brother Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Good Sister Allison Hargreeves, Good Sister Vanya Hargreeves, Grammarly is my beta reader, He doesn't deserve it, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I have an awful imagination, I like this and i hope others do too, Inspired by Hadestown the musical, Internalised Acephobia, Internalised Homophobia, It's Finished!!!, Jewish Dave (Umbrella Academy), Making this up as I go along, Many of them, Me: looks at Percy, Me: makes her a gay ace, Mostly Canon Compliant, My First Work in This Fandom, No Incest, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Overuse of italics, POV Multiple, POV Third Person, Podfic Welcome, Promise, Re-read chapters for full story, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sorry Not Sorry, The Author Regrets Everything, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, What Have I Done, Why Did I Write This?, also me: chapter 3 and 4, and in daredevil and gijoes she's so badass, and one major change, and will continuously be edited, bamf characters, because lets stop killing off our gay characters, but he will get better with Eudora's help, characterisation, except Reginald Hargreeves, four chapters in and i've just finished their childhoods, hope i finish it, if i had to pick an actor to play percy, it won't make it into this story thats for sure, it would be elodie yung, maybe I'll write a spin off with the wedding, my first multi-chapter fanfic, no beta we die like ben, not a bullet in the chest, not necessarily plotwise, past chapters have been edited, seriously though I hate writers block, she's so pretty, so close to the end now!!, so will Dave, sorry - Freeform, sorry about that, subtle changes, super slow updates, thats the only two things ive ever seen her in, this is painful, this will be a long story me thinks, we will see dave again, why
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 02:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20987423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smiley5494/pseuds/Smiley5494
Summary: From the journal of Reginald Hargreeves00.08—Influential and open-minded, she often responds to things not spoken out loud. Impossible to keep secrets from, 00.08 has the unwilling confidence of all the others. Telekinetic and telepathic abilities are powerful. Extremely useful, but incredibly frustrating, does not wish to use her potential. Instead just tells the others stories—an idiotic trait that extends to the media. It appears that 00.08 has charmed pretty much everyone around her. 00.08 possesses an eidetic and photographic memory, near-instant learning and recollection.When Reginald Hargreeves adopted the seven we know and love, he also adopted another: Number Eight, Persephone "Percy" Hargreeves, The Storyteller.Let me tell you a story. . .





	1. All I've Ever Known

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [You'll Be In My Heart (Hargreeves Siblings X Teen!Hargreeves!Reader)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18098108) by [bisexualstevierogers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualstevierogers/pseuds/bisexualstevierogers). 
  * Inspired by [Double Trouble (It's Gonna Be Ok)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18853045) by [kjm126316](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjm126316/pseuds/kjm126316). 

Noon, October first, 1989. 43 children are born to mothers not previously pregnant. Sir Reginald Hargreeves managed to buy eight of them.

At an undisclosed location in Greece, thirty-year-old Thalia Samara gave birth to a healthy (superpowered) daughter. She was the last of the seven women to sell their babies to Hargreeves. She was also the only one to name her daughter before Hargreeves had managed to get there. When Hargreeves did manage to convince a teary Ms Samara to part with the child, the woman asked to keep contact with her daughter—something that Hargreeves said no to and promptly left.

Reginald Hargreeves changed the girl’s name and removed any paper evidence of her existence, the same as what he’d done to the other seven children. When he bought the eight children he had no idea whether or not it would be a good investment. Nor did he know what each could do. So he named each in the order of which he bought them and passed them off to the hired nannies. Number Eight was handed off to a nanny named Maria, a pretty Spanish (closeted) lesbian. Hargreeves then left, without even looking back.

If he had, he would’ve noticed the piercing way Number Eight stared into his very mind and left his soul bare.

* * *

Once the children been with Hargreeves for a couple of months—nearing a year, he finally noticed how Number Eight’s stare unnerved everyone around her, the other children would avoid her, and the nannies all took a double take each time. Reginald Hargreeves avoided eye contact and recorded it in his notebook, moving on to Number Seven.

Eight had been the first to start speaking, picking up languages and skills easier than the others. Nanny Maria had once wanted to be a linguist and delighted in the fact that the many languages she knew could be passed onto her charge. Eight delighted in learning the languages and mimicked Nanny Maria whenever she could (butchering the words more often than not but it was the effort that counted, right?)

Number Eight was the first to demonstrate her powers _(Four was second, though the accomplishment was often given to One)_. Her telepathic ability, she’d been using from the day she’d been born, but she was also the first to demonstrate a physical ability. Telekinesis. When Eight was one lone year old she levitated a small toy she wanted into her crib. In front of Sir Reginald Hargreeves and Nanny Maria. It was the first time anyone had seen one of the children use their abilities and understandably they were impressed. Hargreeves was so impressed he let Eight play with the toy while babbling in Greek.

He continued to watch her in the weeks coming, through the cameras and physically. When Hargreeves started thinking of ways he could train the ability, however, Eight’s tiny head had turned to him and the baby fixed him with her piercing stare. He left as soon as he could, deciding that Number One, who, at one year and a month old, had shattered the bars on his crib with just his little baby fists, was much easier to deal with.

And thus, Reginald Hargreeves turned away from the page in his journal marked _‘00.08’_.

* * *

The children started tutoring when they were two years old. Old enough that most of them could attempt to speak full sentences. Number Two still couldn’t say a word without tripping over it, but he could understand what it meant. The nannies all had a specific set of skills that they taught the children. 

Nanny Josephine, One’s nanny, was a short, stocky, Aboriginal Australian woman who taught wood/metalwork and design, as well as mathematics. Out of all of them, Numbers Five and One were her favourites—they appreciated the work that went into mathematics. Nanny Josephine was a strong, body-builder type of woman, but also cheery and outgoing.

Two’s nanny was a tall and elegant Norwegian woman named Irina, who’s hazel eyes were soft and crinkled when she smiled. Nanny Irina was a retired actor and was very passionate about her subjects; Information, Computer and Communication Technology (ICCT); and Dance, Drama and Interview Training. Nanny Irina was easy to get along with but not outgoing at all. She was regal, and, at first glance appeared cold. Two, Three, Four and Seven were her favourites, as they put the most effort into her subjects. Seven particularly enjoyed ICCT, especially the Communications section while Three, Four and surprisingly Two excelled at Dance, Drama and Interviews.

Nanny Tallulah looked after Number Three. She used to be a Brazilian science teacher, the only one of the eight nannies that had any official teacher training. Nanny Tallulah had some Commerce and Business studies experience as well, something that she passed down to the children. She was stunningly beautiful and was the strictest out of all of them. She was a no-nonsense sort of person but happy to answer and explain any and all questions asked.

Nanny Sophia was a German historian who sold professional art globally. She looked after Number Four and did so well—even when it seemed like he was hallucinating. She was a well-put-together person and greeted every challenge with gusto. She was barely strict at all, with that point the near opposite to Nanny Tallulah, Nanny Sophia loved explaining things but she did it in a relaxed way. With the way she taught them, it was to no one's surprise that the children all loved her subjects. Five and Seven especially loved learning about what sparked certain events, Five more so, but Seven was a close second. Nanny Sophia loved Four because he had—as she put it: “the best natural talent she’d ever seen.”

Nanny Alannah, Five’s nanny, taught the children Religion and Geography. As a part of Religion, which she taught twice a week, she also taught Ethics, Sociology, and Psychology. She was an Iranian woman who’d travelled the world teaching about her set of skills. Out of all of the nannies, she was the one who disliked Hargreeves the most and tended to avoid him to her best ability.

Number Six’s nanny was a small and charismatic woman named Lauren. In her life before Hargreeves, she was a nurse. She taught the children Study Skills and Health—personal, social and medical. Nanny Lauren was a social butterfly and loved reading out loud to all of the children. None of the kids really liked her subjects, but they all liked Nanny Lauren, and she loved all of them.

Charlotte was Seven’s (first) nanny. She taught music and necessary life skills to the children, though she never let them around knives or the oven, preferring to keep them safe. She was the only nanny originally from Canada, and she was the one who first started saying about taking the children and leaving. She was widowed with two grown children, the only one of all the nannies to have ever been married or a mother.

* * *

When Number Eight turned three, personal training became a thing. The children had already been doing group training for slightly longer than a year but now they had to be trained in their powers alone, just to make sure they had absolute control. 

It couldn’t really be called personal training, instead, it should’ve been called personal torture—One was made to lift weights, or pull large, heavy objects for long distances. Two was told to throw his knives at a target at steadily increasing distances and sizes. When Two discovered his power to hold his breath indefinitely, he was then chained underwater as well to test how far it could go. Three discovered her powers after second last, but when she did Hargreeves tested how far she could go with her abilities. 

Four was told to describe the ghosts and interrogate them. Number Five was told to spacial jump over and over again until he could do it to pin-point precision, over and over again without thinking about it. Six was told to bring out the monsters under his skin and control them with an iron fist—make them do what Hargreeves wanted. Seven had to control the sound-wave energy and shatter a selected glass. Eight had to levitate more and more, heavier and heavier objects, she also had to read random strangers minds and take every skill they had and copy it.

Part way through the year, Nanny Charlotte left abruptly, to be replaced by Nanny Mathilde, then shortly after, Nanny Mathilde was replaced by Nanny Rachel. Hargreeves kept a closer watch on Seven for a couple of days, but none of the children understood death and the consequences of lashing out, nor did Hargreeves try to educate them about it, so no-one thought to tell Seven that what she did wrong. 

_(If you went deeper, Seven thought she was doing what she’d been taught to do. She didn’t want to eat the oatmeal so she went back to her training and did what Hargreeves drilled into her—focus on a sound and make the thing go away.)_

Not even a month after Nanny Charlotte ‘_went-away_’ Grace came. A week or two after Grace came, all the other nannies were fired and all ‘completely coincidentally’ left the country. The children didn’t know what to think of that, it took them all a while to warm up to Grace but after a couple of months, they’d started calling her Mother. Grace took over all of their lessons and helped Pogo and Hargreeves train the children.


	2. Hey Little Songbird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no self-control.  
I was going to wait and keep a schedule but then I saw that people read my story and liked it, and I got a comment so I immediately started writing this and am posting it about four hours after the first one.
> 
> So here it is!!

When Eight and the others were a couple of weeks shy of their fifth birthday, Hargreeves decided that Seven couldn’t be controlled by him and took her away. Grace told the others that Seven was sick and had been quarantined for her safety, and theirs. They drew her pictures and made her (frankly horrifying) toys to play with and look at while she was feeling down.

Then, after two weeks of ‘quarantine’ Hargreeves took Three down to see Seven. He told Three that Seven’s powers were killing her, lashing out against her and others, tearing her apart from the inside. Three believed him, why wouldn’t she? This was the man who knew the most about their powers if something about their powers were killing them wouldn’t he know? 

Three came back from wherever Seven was looking sad. One by one she approached her siblings, and one by one she rumoured them into forgetting Seven’s powers. Three approached Eight last, looked her in the eyes and said; 

_“I heard a rumour that you think Seven’s just ordinary.”_

* * *

Seven rejoined the group not two days later, but she was now excluded from the group. Five didn’t let that stop him from chatting and hanging out with Seven, and soon after, Eight joined the two. At this point, Eight still couldn’t completely control her telepathic ability so neither Five, nor Seven had to talk for Eight to carry on a conversation. It was one of these little meetings, a couple of months later during personal study time, when Eight first asked about Seven’s powers.

“Why did Dad try to get rid of your powers, Seven?” There was a long pause, where both Five and Seven stared at her.

“I don’t have powers, Eight.” Seven had curled in on herself. “I’m the _ordinary one_, remember?”

Five looked disappointed, “way to go, Eight.” She couldn’t tell if he’d thought it or said it out loud. Did it matter, though? Either way, they were both disappointed and angry with her.

“You do though!” Eight said hurriedly, she was trying to make everything better, to stop Seven from feeling useless. “Dad thinks about them all the time! They’re. . .” she screwed up her nose, trying to think. "They're like energy sound-waves! That's the word.”

“Eight. . . ?” Five whispered shock was colouring both his and Seven’s faces. “How did you find out?”

“Three came into my room.” Eight shook her head, frowning. “She never does that, so it must have a reason, then after Seven wasn’t allowed to play with us and I had gaps in my memory. Dad kept thinking about the pills Seven takes and about her powers.” Eight hung her head as Five and Seven worked through what she’d said.

* * *

Hargreeves found out about the rumour not sticking with Eight only when Five brought it up during training the next morning. He was _furious_. He forced Three to rumour Five, Seven, and Eight again, then forbid Eight being in the same room as the others without Pogo, Grace, or himself there.

The rules stuck and Eight never brought up Seven’s powers again. She found out about them quickly, but Hargreeves had threatened to harm the others if she said anything so she didn’t. She loved her siblings, all of them, so she would never do anything to hurt them. Instead, Eight dropped as many hints as she could over the years.

* * *

When the children turned seven, Klaus started disappearing for days at a time. At this point, Eight had gotten pretty good at her telepathic ability, _(I mean, if you got excruciating migraines from hearing everyone’s thoughts non-stop, you’d get good at it too. Her telekinesis was still patchy at best,)_ so she dove into Hargreeves mind and learnt about all the individual training they did. At the same time, she used what he wanted her to do in _her_ individual training and copied all his skills into her repertoire. An impressive amount, but now she had more skills to practice with.

Half-way through the year, Hargreeves decided that it was time to start stealth missions. Meaning they did missions but the world wouldn’t know about it. Hargreeves got a tattoo artist in and marked seven of the children as though they were possessions and not children. Which, to be honest, was probably how he saw them. Simple playthings to be used then thrown away when he’d had enough.

The first mission they got was to find an escaped criminal and interrogate him to find out how he escaped and if he was indeed guilty. The mission was to be conducted in the middle of the night. Five found him camping out in an abandoned building, One held him down and Two silently threatened him with his knives. Three went to speak one of her rumours, but Eight held her back. She stared into the criminal’s twitching eyes and dove into his mind.

* * *

_Eight had always seen most people’s minds as a messy and cluttered office room. They were always dark with a single desk lamp shining on a pile of messy papers. Filing cabinets surrounded the desk. Some were locked, most weren’t. The papers in the light were the person’s short-term memory. The papers out of the light were also short-term memory, but the person couldn’t remember them without something to remind them. The papers half in half out of the light were the memories on the tip of your tongue, you could remember them but they were hazy—barely there. _

__

_The desk drawers were for skills and talents. Skills were learned things, like languages, walking, and riding a bike, talents things you were born with, like singing; talents could be trained, explored. Eight could copy skills but not talents. (Seven’s music talent couldn’t be copied but her skill with the violin could.) Talents were locked in the drawers on the left-hand side. Skills were in the right, unlocked. The filing cabinets had long term memory. Occasionally a couple of files could move from the cabinets and onto the desk. There was a mirror hanging above the desk. The mirror represented sanity. Eight could crack the mirror but she couldn’t shatter it. She could also help repair the mirror but most of the time it was up to the person who’s mind it was to either exaggerate the cracks or try to heal them. Trauma put cracks in mirrors, the drawers that the traumatic memories, the ones a person wanted to forget, were usually the ones that were locked in. Eight could unlock the drawers but it took a lot of energy. She could also re-lock drawers but only ones she’d unlocked._

_Some people’s lights were brighter than others. Sometimes people had their drawers open, and the desk light was so bright nearly all the files were seen. Occasionally, people, had their files labelled, organised, and stacked in neat piles. Those people were a breath of fresh air compared to those who didn’t have organised minds. Eight’s mind had the same layout as other’s minds but instead of a desk light, she had the room light flicked on. As far as she could tell she was the only one with a roof light and not a desk light. She figured it had something to do with her powers but she didn’t know._

* * *

The man’s mind wasn’t organised.

Instead it had a bunch of locked drawers, a dull light, and a huge crack through the centre of the mirror. Eight got started. She first copied his skills and ignored the talent drawer. Then she searched through the desk and found files on the past few days—the timeframe of when he’d escaped. Quickly and skillfully, she scanned the documents and found how he’d gotten out. The idiot had climbed the fence in the middle of the night. _And no one had spotted him._ Ridiculous.

She left. Turned around and walked out the door. She blinked, back in her own body, shaking her head and turned away.

“It’s your turn, Three.” Eight let go and stepped back.

_“I heard that you stayed here for the night,”_ Number Three spoke calmly, voice and air distorting because of her power, _“then tomorrow you left and turned yourself into a police station and confessed to all crimes you’ve ever done.”_

When they got back and told Hargreeves about the mission and how it was a success he was proud. Or as proud as he could be, him being a sadistic asshole and all. Seven looked vaguely disappointed and hopeful, but they all pretty much ignored her and went to bed.

* * *

When the Hargreeves children turned eight, Grace gave them names. Proper names, instead of numbers. She was under strict orders to name seven of them. Number Seven looked heartbroken, knowing that she’d be left out of that too. They lined up in order of their numbers, from One to Eight.

Grace moved down the line, giving each of them a name she’d picked out of the thousands online. One to Luther, Two became Diego, Three was Allison, Klaus instead of Four. What surprised everyone except for Five, Eight and Grace was that Mother skipped Five and moved straight onto Six _(Ben, Ben, Ben)_. Grace stopped at Seven and gave her the name Vanya. Mother stopped in front of Eight.

“Number Eight, your name, should you choose to accept, will be Persephone. Persephone Hargreeves.”

A sharp but beautiful smile spread over Ei—Persephone’s face. She had a name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They finally have names!!


	3. Our Lady of the Underground

Persephone and the others officially started their crime-fighting days when they turned twelve, the whole lot of them had pretty much mastered their powers. Their first mission in the eyes of the media was a bank robbery. A roaring success. While they were standing in order, Percy’s arm slung over Ben’s shoulder as she waved to the crowd.

* * *

Their first interview came after their third mission. Vanya had been left out, just like pretty much always (Five and Percy tried to include her, but Percy had never really tried that much, still careful after all the threats Hargreeves gave her). The interview wasn’t live, so they could answer more truthfully.

“So what do we call you?” The interviewer, a large, handsome woman name Mary Ruth asked, shifting in their seat.

“We’re not allowed to put our names out into the media.” Luther answered. They were wearing civilian clothes under their blazers and jumpers. Allison and Percy were both wearing dresses. Allison was wearing heels but Percy had the comfiest boots she’d ever seen on. Five was dressed to the nines, Klaus had been forced to wear the uniform as the flamboyant outfit he had on was vetoed immediately. Ben and Diego were wearing comfy clothes. Mary Ruth latched onto the symbol peeking out of the top of Luther’s jumper. The NASA logo.

“That’s a nice shirt, so do you like space?”

Luther started in on an impressive tirade about how one day he was going to go to space, and how space travel had changed so much over the years. 

“Well, aren’t you a little Spaceboy, then! What are your powers? Are we able to get information about it?” Mary Ruth turned to all of them. A sly smile grew over their face. “C’mon now, we’re dying to get some insider information about the famed Umbrella Academy!”

“Well,” Percy said softly, leaning forward in her seat. "Let me tell you a story. . ."

Allison looked scandalised when Percy spun a story about Five and her sneaking down to the kitchen in the middle of the night to make fluffernutter sandwiches. She included a vague description of both their powers leaving out how they worked and what they actually did.

“Wow, is that a true story?” Mary Ruth asked, delighted. “Quite the little storyteller!”

* * *

When the interview aired the media clutched onto the nicknames ‘Spaceboy’ and ‘Storyteller’ like a lifeline. In the next few interviews, Allison and Klaus earned the nicknames ‘Rumour’ and ‘Séance’ respectively. It took another couple of weeks after that for Ben to earn a nickname. A reporter had managed to get past the barriers when they returned from a mission and called out to Ben.

_“Do you enjoy the missions!?”_

_“They’re horrible.” Ben’s voice was dull and full of horror and disgust._

Hargreeves’ money kept the report out of the news but someone must have leaked it because Ben’s media given nickname was henceforth the Horror.

* * *

Then the dinner that Five vanished from arrived. When Five slammed his knife into the table and announced that he wanted to time travel, Vanya shook her head subtly. Persephone was terrified. If he couldn’t get back they would never see him again.

It took too long to sneak out to look for him. Percy and Vanya snuck out half an hour after curfew. One street over they ran into Ben and Klaus. Together the four of them combed the city for their missing brother until about four hours before they were meant to get up. Halfway back to the academy they ran into Diego, Allison and Luther.

"You guys are looking too?" Ben asked, startled.

"Of course," Allison replied, equally as shocked. "Five's our brother, no matter how much of an asshole he is we're going to bring him home."

* * *

_At an unknown time, in an unknown place, a woman stared at the files in her hands. Something was wrong. How to fix it?_

_Typewriters clicked as the woman rolled up the paper and left. A single name. A single death._

* * *

About half a year after Five vanished the British Royal family were touring around where they lived. The Umbrella Academy had been specifically requested to meet them on their second day of touring. A big stage was built in the middle of the city, hundreds of people pushed against the barriers, trying to get closer. Cameras were rolling showing live footage to millions of TVs all around the world.

They were in informal clothes, Allison was dressed like a supermodel, Klaus in a toned-down form of his usual flamboyance. Luther was wearing a suit and Ben in his hoodie and jacket. Diego was carrying his knives, hidden in an all-black outfit. Percy was wearing an oversized, colourful hoodie and navy tracksuit pants. She was wearing her comfy boots.

Hargreeves stood next to them, talking to the prime minister. Percy spotted a pretty girl around her age in the crowd and waved. The prime minister stepped forward and took a microphone from a waiting assistant. He monologued for a while, telling the story about the Umbrella Academy from the media's perspective. Then one by one, Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus and Ben stepped forward to shake hands with the royal family. Finally, it was Persephone's turn. The prime minister introduced her to the royal family and she stepped forward. 

A sharp pain. 

Then. . . _nothing_.


	4. Way Down Hadestown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry??? Please forgive me??

Persephone stood there on the stage. Simply stared down at her own body in disbelief.

Someone screamed. It might’ve been her screaming, it might’ve been someone else—possibly the pretty girl she’d been waving to before. Either way, whoever it was set off a chain reaction; people started to scream and panic. Everyone on the stage was frozen in shock—it wasn’t every day a fourteen-year-old girl got shot in the side of the head _(**murdered, assassinated**)_ on live TV—the cameras were still rolling—in front of the royal family and a huge crowd. A growing pool of blood surrounded her body’s head, still flowing from the hole in the side of her skull. Her hoodie—her favourite hoodie with the swirly, tye-dye patterns—was nearly coated in blood, stained and yet the blood was still flowing.

People with a blue glowing outline flickered in her vision. She turned her head as screams echoed around her, both in the living world and of the dead. Klaus stepped towards her. Persephone stumbled away from her body, still in shock. She could hear sirens, someone—or more than one person, Persephone had no idea—had called an ambulance and the police. Ben snapped out of his shock, he knelt next to her body and frantically tried to find her pulse. The other children also snapped out of their shock. Allison and Luther got the royals out of there. Diego hovered over Ben, looking faintly sick. Klaus just stared at her. Not her body, but her.

“It’s no use, Ben,” Klaus said it quietly, but everyone on the stage and the nearest couple of microphones heard it. His eyes were locked onto hers, “She’s gone. Percy’s dead.”

“Klaus—” Percy whispered, haltingly, taking a shaky step towards him. Klaus flinched. “Klaus, please tell me I’m not. . .”

“I’m sorry,” Klaus whispered back, “Percy, there’s no coming back from that.”

Percy knelt in her body and waved her hand in Ben’s face. He didn’t notice. Didn’t move, didn’t react at all. Diego moved towards Klaus, hands shaking.

“C-can y-you see h-her?” Diego’s words got caught in his throat but Klaus and Percy got the idea.

“Yeah,” Klaus answered, choking up on the word.

“Tell them I’m sorry!” Percy yelled over the noise, “Klaus please!”

“She says she’s sorry.”

“Tell her it wasn’t her fault!” Luther yelled towards Klaus, “tell her we all will miss her and that we love her!”

There wasn’t a dry eye between them all. Five had simply vanished, they'd never found a body and Klaus hadn't seen his ghost, so they had no idea if he was still alive but they could hope. With Persephone, there was none of that. In this case, there was a definite body and a definite ghost. She was dead.

The police had gotten the crowd and TV crew-men and crew-women away. Hargreeves was talking to the prime minister about public funeral services. Emergency services swarmed the body, taking photos and evidence, Ben and the other living members of the Umbrella Academy were physically dragged away.

Later they would try to find where the shot came from and discover that no one had any idea. They would comb through all the live footage, the photos and videos from phones, and find nothing. It was as though the shooter had simply vanished without a trace.

* * *

A week before the private funeral the prime minister had held a public memorial service. Hundreds had turned up and a statue of an unsmiling Percy in her academy uniform was commissioned. It was put up in the courtyard back at the academy and the plaque on the pedestal read: _PERSEPHONE HARGREEVES, MAY YOUR STORIES BRING JOY IN THE UNDERWORLD_. Percy hated it on principle. The Academy had been given a short period to mourn, during that week-long time they held the private funeral. It was small and lacklustre and for Percy weird to watch. She was haunting her funeral, watching as they buried her body in a soft, expensive coffin and said a couple of words each. Everyone was sobbing, Hargreeves hadn’t even decided to come.

It took Percy months to adjust to being intangible, and unheard to all except Klaus. Eventually, she got used to it, the definite lack of sleep, breathing and eating was the strangest thing. It also took that amount of time to realise that being around Klaus was meaning that her wounds were slowly vanishing off of her ghost and making it look more like she was alive. The longer she was around him the less noticeable her death was on her ghost. The blood cleared from her hoodie and the side of her head was no longer caved in and bloody. She ended up continuously haunting Klaus, it was mostly depressing but it meant that she could still see her family. 

She’d discovered she could still use her powers, but it was like she was behind opaque glass while trying, difficult and took a lot more energy, but overall, still possible. It took longer for her power to grip onto objects and people. Klaus was the only person who’s mind she could still read easily.

She followed her other siblings around when Klaus just couldn't bear to see the ghosts, including her. After her death, Diego stopped talking. Instead, he decided to simply shadow their Mother as she went about her tasks. With the amount of time he spent watching Mother in the kitchen, out of all of them, Percy reckoned that Diego would be the only Hargreeves sibling able to cook with any degree of _niceness_. Allison and Luther hung out more but any attraction between them had fizzled out long before it could be acted upon. Klaus talked to her more, but only because the drugs he took couldn’t get rid of her. As if something as _ordinary_ as drugs could keep Persephone Hargreeves away from her siblings.

Ben asked Klaus to translate a couple of times, but those times became rarer and rarer as time went on. Instead Ben spoke to each sibling, keeping them close even as they drifted apart. Vanya withdrew almost entirely from the family, spending more and more time in her room practising her violin. She hardly ever smiled, and like Diego, barely spoke. The only person she would speak too was Ben, and that was only when he practically dragged her out to socialise.

* * *

Their fifteenth birthday came and went. This year their cake was missing two candles, leaving them with only six on the cake instead of eight that was on the cake the previous year. In just one year, Five and vanished and Persephone had died. It was strange watching her siblings when they couldn’t see her, it was even stranger to watch her siblings celebrate their birthday without her or Five.

The remaining members of the Umbrella Academy continued to go on missions. Klaus was high more often than not, so he was left out of missions more and more. When he did go on missions, he was put on look-out duty, something he complained about to Percy.

* * *

A year after Percy’s death, all the siblings crowded around her statue and mourned for both her and Five. Even though Klaus said that Five mightn’t be dead because he couldn’t see him, but he could see Percy, the others didn’t believe him.

Hargreeves gave them no grace period for interviews, however, pretty much immediately after Percy’s death, he’d organised an interview with a popular talk show, and it didn’t stop there. Over and over again, the Umbrella Academy attended interviews and even a year later some of the most popular questions were ones like: _“What happened to the boy? The one who vanished? Can the Séance see the Storyteller? What happened that day? How did you all feel?”_ When an interviewer asked one of those questions, Percy would stand near them and yell until someone else (living) also started to lay into the interviewer.

In one particularly memorable interview, the academy was back in Mary Ruth's 'torture' chambers (as Klaus lovingly nicknamed the room after they'd left) and Mary Ruth asked the dreaded questions.

* * *

_"So," Mary Ruth asked, as perky as always, "your missing members, the Boy and the Storyteller? What can you tell us about his disappearance and her death?"_

_There was a couple of minutes of silence as they absorbed the fact that Mary Ruth had done that and not only that but they were expected to reply. Behind Mary Ruth, Percy started swearing fluently at the interviewer, and since Percy didn't need to breathe, it was a constant stream of scathing words. That was enough for Klaus who'd snapped at Mary Ruth, followed shortly by Diego and Allison._

_Due to four out of six of the academy members swearing at them (even though one was dead and thus unheard), Mary Ruth cut the interview short and left.  
_

* * *

When they were sixteen, at a time when Klaus had been left out of another mission and Percy was sitting on Vanya's bed next to her, listening to her play the violin, that Ben died. Two years after Percy died, and nearly three years after Five vanished. Neither Percy nor Klaus had any idea on what had happened exactly, they had no idea how he died and Ben didn't want to talk about it. He'd tried to hug Percy, but Percy didn't want all the blood to rub off Ben and onto her hoodie.

Just like with Percy, but faster, Ben's ghost healed and cleared itself of blood and injuries. Klaus' powers must've gotten stronger because instead of the uniform Ben died in, he wore his favourite outfit—the one he always wore when they were allowed out of uniform. When he'd caught up with Percy, Ben joined her in her quest to silently watch over the whole family, and together they watched as the shock of Ben's death hit the siblings hard. 

Diego had only started talking again nearly a year previously, and as he was there for Ben's death, it caused him to go non-verbal again. Luther and Allison were also there and after Ben's death, they both went to complete opposites on the 'coping-mechanisms-to-help-deal-with-a-beloved-sibling's-traumatic-death' scale. Allison withdrew from the academy as much as she could while still living under Hargreeves' thumb. She started auditioning for more and more TV shows and movies and getting more and more parts. Luther turned back to Hargreeves, his line of reasoning was, if he trained harder and for longer, maybe he could prevent another death.

Vanya perhaps took Ben's death the hardest. After all, for the past two years, Ben had been the only living sibling to actively seek her out. Now, however, she thought she was on her own. As soon as she could, Vanya applied to a prestigious music school (for the next year) that neither Percy nor Ben had ever heard of. Klaus didn't take Ben joining his ghostly family members any better than any other person in the family as he started to spiral, going into harder and harder drugs. Slowly but surely he started to truly lose himself to addiction—something he'd started years earlier.

* * *

Ben's funeral was just like Percy's. 

It was scary how alike they were, both only had one glaring difference. 

His funeral was only a private event. With just family. No one in the public even knew of his death until someone noticed his absence. Hargreeves got another statue commissioned. Just like Percy's, it was of Ben in his academy uniform and no smile. His plaque read: _BEN HARGREEVES, MAY THE DARKNESS WITHIN YOU FIND PEACE IN THE LIGHT_. Percy scowled when she first saw it. Ben looked emotionless. He didn't know what to think of it.

Ben and Percy haunted their family. They followed Klaus around and took great pride in being the angel and demon on his shoulders. Percy took care to make sure she visited everyone else as often as she could and more often than not Ben joined her.

* * *

That year, when they turned seventeen, three candles were missing from the cake. The birthday celebration lasted half an hour then Diego and Luther started arguing, Allison looked frustrated and Vanya simply left. Klaus hadn't even decided to go.

* * *

_Somewhere in 2022, a lonely sixteen-year-old birthday boy picked up a book with his sister's face on the front cover._

* * *

Percy was there when Vanya got her acceptance letter from that prestigious musical school. Ben and Percy were both there with Klaus when Vanya announced to the whole family that she was leaving—filing for emancipation and going to the musical school.

There was a tense silence, then everyone turned back to what they had been doing before Vanya had spoken. The look of utter disappointment and sadness on Vanya’s face nearly made Percy fight mini-Klaus for control of his body, all just so she could congratulate Vanya.

Vanya left the next day. Just left, no goodbyes, she simply left.

Klaus left not soon after, apparently deciding that the streets were better than the mansion. Not that Percy blamed him; after Ben's death and Vanya left he started cracking down on all the remaining members harder and harder. Ben and Percy followed, given that he was their ticket to the living world. Percy still popped in to visit occasionally, and when she found Vanya's school she'd watch Vanya play when given the chance.

Diego and Allison left as soon as they turned eighteen. Diego joined the police academy and rented a room, while Allison bought an expensive house near Hollywood. She'd gotten an important part in a very anticipated movie and decided to move out. Luther simply stayed. He trained and went on missions alone, never trying to contact any of the others.

* * *

The years passed quicker now that they were out of that hellhole. Klaus overdosed a lot, enough at least, that he ended up with a pretty good friendship with most of the EMTs around. Every time it happened Ben begged Klaus to get clean, Percy stood behind Ben, giving him her silent support. Occasionally Klaus spoke to Diego, either for money or a lift. Most of the time Diego simply tossed Klaus into rehab. 

It was during one such stint in rehab that Vanya's book, Extra-Ordinary, was published. Percy travelled to each of her siblings, watching their reactions to their "ordinary" sister's autobiography. It seemed the general mood was 'angry and betrayed'. Klaus read the book in group therapy in that rehab stay. Ben lent over his shoulder to read along, but Percy leant back brow furrowed as she thought through Vanya's reasoning to publishing the book. She'd dedicated a whole chapter to each of them, though she had written a disclaimer at the beginning, saying she_ "had no idea of the others' thoughts and feelings during their time in the academy—this is a completely personal work about myself—the only person with that ability was Persephone and she had died ten years previously."_

Percy didn't listen. She wouldn't. Not to a book written about Vanya—her sister, who didn't have all the facts. Facts, that Percy had tried to tell Klaus, who unfortunately was high as a kite at the time. Facts that Ben now had. So no, Percy wouldn't listen to Klaus read that book. Well, that was until Klaus flipped to the chapter written about her.

_"Persephone's death was the spark that started our family's decline. She and Five were the siblings I was closest to, and so when she died—so close to Five's time travel—I was devastated. We started to drift apart, becoming more like strangers living in the same house by the day. Ben was the only one to hold us together, but it was never the same. There was always that spark of 'what-could-have-been'. It wasn't until Ben's death, two years later, that that spark became a flame. That flame grew at the funeral, then became a wildfire at our next birthday._

_"Persephone loved myths and legends especially the wilder and interesting she found it. The more out there the story was, the more she would tell it; and the better it would be. She was always the best at languages and loved linguistics with a passion I had personally not seen like that until I left for music school._

_"Percy's powers were out of control for a long time, she always said that telepathy was hard to control—the limits and extent of the brain a difficult thing for a child to control and understand. Her telekinesis—the power everyone knew about—was the easiest of her two powers. She told me that she thought I had abilities too, she said they must have something to do with music and sound, but something must've been blocking them. I'm not so sure. Twenty-four and I've never discovered anything that could be a power."_

"Enough." Percy's voice cut through Klaus' reading, causing him to stop and look up towards her. Ben shadowed his move a moment later.

"Perse?" Ben asked. She was shaking, tears welling up in her eyes. She felt smaller, weak. Just like how she'd felt when she'd died.

"I don't want to hear about how Vanya viewed me. I don't want to hear the book. That's enough."

"Klaus?" the woman running the therapy session asked, "Klaus, are you going to continue reading?"

"No." Klaus decided after a desperate look from Percy. "No. I don't want to read about my sister's death, and she doesn't want to hear it." 

Klaus left, head held high, the book tucked under his arm. Percy and Ben shadowed him. It was the last time Klaus attended group therapy.

* * *

It was another five years before anything else to do with the Hargreeves siblings caught the eye of one of the ghosts. Klaus was in an ambulance, being resuscitated after another overdose when both Percy and Ben started shouting for his attention. The headline on the news station the TV had been set to, had caught all three of their eyes. Reginald Hargreeves was dead. Dead and gone, and the funeral was in a couple of days.

"Should we go?" Klaus asked simply.

"Yeah," Percy answered, a grin slowly growing over her face. "This should be fun."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw I picture Percy as Elodie Yung. (Elektra Natchios from Daredevil/Defenders or Jinx from G.I. Joes: Retaliation Elodie Yung.)
> 
> School has started again (term 4 yay!!) so chapters will be slower especially around exam time.


	5. 8 Days—Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so much later than expected. I have a bunch of excuses but I won't bore you by writing them here.
> 
> We finally get to canon!! 
> 
> This will follow canon pretty closely for a little bit then it should diverge. Remember the only current difference is Persephone. And that she and Ben know about Vanya. Both are dead and Klaus is still willfully ignorant.

On the day of the funeral, Klaus arrived second. Shortly before Allison and long after Luther who'd already been there for days. Percy knew this only because Ben had popped in to see what was happening the day before. He'd narrated what had happened in a hilariously dry deadpan to an appreciative audience of Percy and Klaus. Staring up at the academy, Klaus sauntered in, took one look around the (mostly) empty house, and turned to leave.

"Klaus," Ben spoke from behind Percy. Her look of disappointed distaste and unbridled hate could've put Hargreeves in the ground if he hadn't already died.

"Yes, Benny-boy?" Klaus replied loudly in a voice that spoke of an oncoming mental breakdown. He looked the part too, eyes jumping to the many reminders of trauma in the room, never staying in one place for longer than a couple of seconds—even Percy and Ben got the same treatment.

"At least steal a bunch of expensive junk if you're gonna jump ship before you see our other siblings," as Percy spoke, she wandered over to the painting of Five that hung over the mantlepiece. It had been hung up by Hargreeves a few days after Five disappeared; to the others, it served as a warning._ "This is what happens when you disobey. Just look at what happened to Number Five."_

Klaus seemed to take Percy's advice, snatching expensive items right off the shelves on his way to Hargreeves' office. From there, he sifted through the old man's things. Taking the expensive gold plates and the timeless valuables as he went. A couple of times either Percy or Ben had pointed something out and most of the time Klaus took it. He was rifling around behind Hargreeves' desk, asking aloud about the cash, when Allison entered. For Klaus, it had been over twelve years since he'd last seen her. For Percy and Ben, they'd both visited her over the years. Most of the time it was when Allison filmed in the area, something she hadn't done for a long time.

"Klaus? What are you doing in here?" Allison asked. Klaus popped up from behind the desk, causing Percy to snort while Ben just cracked a grin and rolled his eyes.

"Allison? Oh wow, is that you? C'mere," Klaus stared at her for a long moment before pulling her into a hug. They'd all seen the magazines featuring her, especially after the divorce. Allison and Klaus spoke for a while longer, but Percy tuned them out, instead, she looked around the room. A place she'd never been allowed in, not in life, and there was certainly no way she was going in while dead. Hargreeves' office was just like the man who owned it—cold, unfeeling. There was no emotion stored in the house. Nothing except what could have been.

"You know, I was hoping to see you, actually," Klaus exclaimed, happily, bouncing on his toes, "because I wanted to get your autograph! Add it to my collection!"

"Just out of rehab?"

"No." Klaus sighed and waved a dismissive hand. "No. I'm done with all that. I just came down here to prove to myself that the old man was really gone. And he is! He's dead!" Klaus cheered. Ben clapped appreciatively, and Percy laughed at the expression on Allison's face. Klaus continued, tone changing from exaggerated happiness to an undertone of cold anger. "You know how I know? Because if he were alive, not one of us would be allowed to set foot in this room. He was always in here—our whole childhood. Plotting his next torment, right? Remember how he used to look at us? That scowl?"

Allison nodded. Humming appreciatively.

"Thank christ he's not our real father so we couldn't inherit those cold dead eyes!"

Klaus was imitating Hargreeves as Allison smiled when Luther entered with a dull _"get out of his chair"_. Ben had seen him last out of all of the siblings, having visited the day before, while Percy had only visited over the years, the only time Percy and Ben couldn't visit had been when he had lived on the moon. It was for that reason that Ben was the only person in the room—both dead and alive—not surprised by Luther's appearance.

"Oh wow, Luther!"

"Luther," Percy murmured, _"What happened?"_

Naturally, he didn't answer. Ben looked over to her, with a raised eyebrow.

"Wow, you really, uh..." Klaus looked taken aback, "You filled out over the years, huh?"

"Klaus." Percy winced at the disappointed expression Luther was wearing. Klaus picked up on it too, because he seemed to deflate.

"Save the lecture," Klaus started to leave, "I was already leaving. You guys can talk amongst yourselves."

Ben laughed just as Klaus chuckled softly. Percy poked her tongue out at the two. Luther sighed and held out a hand to stop Klaus as Allison turned away.

"Drop it."

"Ex-squeeze me?"

"Do it. Now."

"All right," Klaus admitted defeat. "All right." He dropped all of the items that he'd stolen from the room, except the pearl box that he'd taken from the desk. Percy knew that only because she'd pointed it out. "It's just an advance on our inheritance! That's all it is. No need to get your little panties in a bunch."

Percy and Ben trailed after him as he left. They followed him even as he wrestled the box open, threw away the contents, and traded it for money. They still followed, even as he used that money to buy drugs. Ben and Percy teamed up to urge Klaus to go back into the house.

"I want to see what happens at the funeral," Ben admitted, to Percy's frantic nods.

* * *

"Uh..." Luther started, looking around at them all. Percy was seated on the bar—sitting partially in the alcohol—ignoring Ben's (who was leaning against the wall next to said bar) disgusted look. "I guess we should get this started. So I figured we could have a sort of memorial service in the courtyard at sundown. Say a few words, just at Dad's favourite spot."

Allison unknowingly echoed Percy's question. "Dad had a favourite spot?"

"You know, under the oak tree. We used to sit out there all the time. None of you ever did that?"

"Dad's favourite spot was near his two dead children's memorial statues?" Percy called, sarcastic. "Figures the tree was his favourite, though, he was always an asshole." Ben snorted. Klaus hid a grin with a long drink, then by lighting cigarette.

"Will there be refreshment?" Klaus announced, changing the subject while he wandered around. "Tea? Scones? Cucumber sandwiches are always a winner."

"What?" Luther stopped, "No. And put that out. Dad didn't allow smoking in here."

"Is that my skirt?" Allison asked, incredulous. Percy snorted and pointed to herself.

"Nah, it was originally mine then she took it."

"What? Oh, yeah, this. I found it in your room, it was originally Percy's, I think." Klaus ignored the collective flinch that ran through the room at the mention of Percy's name. Ben rolled his eyes and made to punch her on the shoulder, but his hand just went right through. Diego mouthed_ 'Persephone'_, and Vanya looked like someone had shot a dog in front of her. "It's a little dated, I know, but it's very breathy on the bits."

There was a long pause as every one of them watched Klaus sit down and take a long drink. Percy laughed outright at their expressions. Luther shook himself and spoke again. 

"Uh, right. Listen up. Still, some important things we need to discuss, all right?"

"Like what?" Diego asked, rolling his eyes in scary unison with Ben. When Percy pointed this out Ben scowled at her.

"Like the way he died."

"Oh, here we go," Diego muttered. 

"I don't understand," Vanya spoke up for the first time, voice quiet. "I thought they said it was a heart attack?"

"Yeah, according to the coroner."

"Well, wouldn't they know?" Vanya spoke again and Percy just pointed to her and scowled at Luther.

"Theoretically."

"Theoretically?" Allison echoed.

"I'm just saying, at the very least, something happened," Luther spoke evenly, but it was clear to Percy and Ben that he was trying to plead with them all. "The last time I talked to Dad, he sounded strange."

"Oh _… quelle surprise_!" Klaus spoke while drinking, so it came out as a gurgle. Not surprisingly, everyone else ignored him, more focused on Luther and his theory.

"Strange how?" Allison pressed.

"He sounded on edge," Luther explained to a sceptical audience. "Told me I should be careful who I trust."

"Luther, he was a paranoid bitter old man," Diego cut in, "who was starting to lose what was left of his marbles."

"No. He must've known something was going to happen." Luther's denial game was strong. So strong he turned to Klaus for help. "Look, I know you don't like to do it but I need you to talk to Dad."

Percy winced, Ben frowned and Klaus scoffed. "I can't just call Dad in the afterlife and be like_ 'Dad could you stop playing tennis with Hitler and take a quick call?'_"

"Since when? That's your thing."

"I'm not in the right… frame of mind." Percy winced at the way Klaus' panic seemed to come to the forefront of his mind. Ben exchanged a look with her as Allison connected the dots.

"You're high?" It sounded accusing, but Klaus just laughed.

"Yeah!" He muffled another laugh, "yeah! I mean, how are you not, listening to this nonsense?"

"Well sober up," Luther ordered, turning away without a second thought. "This is important. Then there's the issue of the missing monocle."

"Who gives a shit about a stupid monocle?" Diego snapped, staring at Luther. It was clear they'd already argued about this.

"Exactly." Everyone looked taken aback when Luther agreed with Diego. Percy knew one thing about the relationship between One and Two and that was that they never agreed on anything. "It's worthless. So whoever took it, I think it was personal."

"Where are you going with this?" If she could've, Percy would've slapped Klaus. That being said, she sent a significant look to Diego when he said what she was thinking.

"Oh, isn't it obvious, Klaus? He thinks one of us killed Dad."

When Luther looked away, everyone took it as the affirmation it was. Percy found the whole thing hilarious. Hargreeves was dead and her siblings were arguing about foul play and who did it.

"You do?" Klaus said it softly, but it sounded like a cannon shot in the near-silent room. His question seemed to make their siblings' mouths work.

"How could you think that?" Vanya asked, equally as softly.

"Great job, Luther, way to lead." Every word was careful like Diego practised in his head before he said it, but still cutting.

"That's not what I'm saying."

You're crazy man," Klaus announced, getting up. "Crazy."

"I've not finished." Luther tried again, but Klaus wasn't having any of it.

"Sorry, I'm just gonna go murder Mum. Be right back." Percy and Ben followed him, neither wanted to see where this trainwreck of a conversation was going anymore.

* * *

"Listen up old man."

Klaus stood at the bar where Hargreeves' ashes sat. Ben had stolen Percy's seat on the bar, so in retaliation, Percy was hanging from the chandelier. When Ben had first seen her trying to climb the chandelier, he'd nearly had a metaphorical heart attack. Nearly.

"You know," he continued thoughtfully, "If I was murdered and one of my sons—adopted sons—happened to be able to commune with the dead, I might think about, I don't know, I don't know… manifesting!"

"Do you want the winner of the Shitty Dad Award to manifest?" Percy pointed out with Ben nodding along. "You still don't know how to banish the other ghosts. No offence, Ben."

"None taken." Ben replied instantly. Klaus ignored them.

"Do the big angry ghost lecture. Tell everyone who did it, and find eternal peace." The ashes didn't move. Hargreeves didn't appear. Klaus, it seemed, took that personally. 

"Eternal peace is probably overrated." He glanced towards Ben and Percy. Ben was now lecturing Percy on why people _didn't_ hang from chandeliers in everyday life. Percy was instead swinging on the chandelier ignoring Ben. Klaus marched around the room and watched for a short while.

"Come on now, Reggie." Klaus turned back to the urn. "Any time now."

Ben and Percy watched, with increasing commentary, what Klaus was doing. He seemed to be trying every thought that popped into his mind. At one point Klaus yelled, "you always were a stubborn bastard", and Percy replied, "no shit, Sherlock."

It was the funniest thing, for Percy and Ben, watching Klaus pull off a one-sided argument with Hargeeves' ashes. Klaus sighed.

"I don't know about you, but I need a drink."

Time seemed to slow down as Klaus reached for a drink. Ben moved forward and reached out, Percy fell off the chandelier and onto the floor in a graceless heap. The urn toppled over and Hargreeves' ashes poured out and onto the bar and surrounding floor. The reaction was instantaneous. Klaus moved back with a shocked laugh; Ben just sighed and closed his eyes, hands still outstretched, partially through the urn. Percy lay on the floor in a lump and laughed. All three paused for a long moment, then Klaus tried to scrape the ashes back into the urn. Only once he'd managed to clear up enough ashes in that no one could tell he'd spilled them in the first place, did he take the urn and enter the kitchen. There, Klaus swallowed the little bag of drugs he'd bought—to Ben’s displeasure.

* * *

Loud music swelled through the house, Luther's favourite song filling the whole area. 

Percy took the song as an apology for the disaster that was the last Family Meeting; she had to say, it was certainly accepted after watching all of their living siblings dance. Klaus doing a slow dance with Hargreeves' urn, Diego pulling moves she never even knew he could do, Vanya dancing like she was afraid someone was watching, Luther not used to life on Earth, and Allison dancing with a pink feather boa that Percy's pretty sure Klaus stole back when they were eleven. Ben laughed along with her as they stalked their family. 

Then, the music cut out abruptly. Metal things all shot towards the courtyard. Percy shrieked as knives flew right through her and stuck to the wall. Ben didn't make a sound, instead, he phased through the walls and left, followed shortly by Percy. Out in the courtyard, Percy stared in slack-jawed surprise at the blue portal just hanging in midair in the courtyard.

"Does that blue remind you of Five's blue?" Percy asked Ben quietly. They both ignored the appearance of siblings in favour of staring at the blue.

"I don't know," Ben replied just as a fire extinguisher flew over him and through the portal.

"Is there someone in the blue light?"

"An old man maybe?" Ben replied. The person flickered and recognition shot through Percy.

"It _is_ Five!" The portal vanished and Number Five fell onto the ground in a boneless heap.

"Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?"

"Shit."


	6. 8 Days—Part 2

The chopping board slammed down on the table in front of the whole Hargreeves family. Ben peering over Klaus’ shoulder and Percy sitting on the table in front of Klaus. He glared and she poked her tongue out at him.

"What's the date? The exact date.” Five took the bread from the cupboard, for a guy who’s been gone for forty-five years in an apocalypse he sure knew where everything was located pretty well.

"The 24th," Vanya answered softly, all of them staring at Five, who didn’t seem to care.

"Of what?"

"March."

“Good.”

“So, are we going to talk about what just happened?” Luther spoke up. Five simply ignored him; taking the bread out of the bag and onto the board. Frustrated at being ignored, Luther stood up. “It’s been seventeen years.” 

Five scoffed, looking up and pausing in his sandwich making. “It’s been a lot longer than that.” He teleported through Luther and over to a cupboard.

“I haven’t missed _that_,” Luther muttered.

“What a surprise.” Percy snarked.

“Where’d you go?” Diego asked.

“The future. It’s shit, by the way.” Five teleported back with the marshmallows.

“Called it!” Klaus put his hand up, accidentally poking Ben through the face. Percy laughed and Ben shuffled backwards, affronted.

“I should’ve listened to the old man.” Five continued, opening the fridge for the peanut butter. “You know, jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice.” 

Five opened the peanut butter and finally looked up. “Nice dress.”

Percy had to admit it hurt, Five looking right through her seeing only the living Hargreeves siblings. Five couldn’t see Ben and he couldn’t see her; even though she was sitting in the centre of the table.

“Oh, well, _danke_!” Klaus could see the resigned hurt on both the ghostly sibling’s faces, but before he could say anything else, Vanya spoke up.

“Wait, how did you get back?”

“In the end, I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time.”

Percy laughed outright at the confused and outright dumbfounded expressions on her sibling’s faces. She could practically hear crickets sound as their minds whirred, trying to understand. Percy only understood because the minute she had enough time to read his mind, she’d used so much energy going through every little thought he could have possibly had over the years. It helped that she’d always been pretty smart, too, but she never really like quantum theory and maths, preferring psychology and legends.

“That makes no sense.” Diego’s slightly defeated tone made her laugh slightly louder. Five’s reply (“Well it would if you were smarter.”) and Diego’s reaction of standing and Luther blocking him, made her laugh so loud Ben had to shush her.

“How long were you there?” Luther asked, remembering Five’s reply earlier.

“Forty-five years. Give or take.”

Luther and Diego sat. Everyone stopped fidgeting, Percy’s knowing look made Ben hiss questions towards her.

“So what are you saying?” Luther’s incredulous tone had Five looking up. Sarcastic and witty, and boy was Percy glad she hadn’t misremembered him. “That you’re fifty-eight?”

“No, my consciousness is fifty-eight. Apparently, my body is now thirteen again.” 

“Wait, how does that even work?” Vanya asked.

“Delores kept saying the equations were off.” Five shrugged. He finished his sandwich and took a long bite. “Bet she’s laughing now.”

“Delores?” Vanya asked. Percy shot her a sympathetic look. Five just hummed and picked up the newspaper lying on the table.

“Guess I missed the funeral.”

“How’d you know about that?” Luther asked, paranoid as ever. This time, Percy, Ben, and Five shot him incredulous looks.

“What part of _the future_ do _you_ not understand? Heart failure, huh?”

“Yeah,” Diego answered first, quickly followed by Luther’s short “no.”

Five hummed again, “nice to see nothing’s changed,” And left.

“Uh, that’s it? That’s all you have to say?” Allison spoke up for the first time, just as Percy got off the table and followed five.

“What else is there to say? The circle of life.” 

There was a long silence as everyone processed what Five had said, broken only by Luther’s, “well… that was interesting.”

* * *

Percy watched as Vanya approached Five, who stood under that awful painting. She watched, unseen and unheard as they spoke about the painting and Vanya’s book. Tears welled up in her eyes as she stood next to her two siblings.

“Oh, there are worse things that can happen.” Five spoke softly, and Percy watched like a guardian angel. A silent protector. There, but also not. Unable to help, condemned to watch and be unable to say anything.

“You mean like what happened to Ben? Or Persephone?” 

It was a surprise to hear Vanya bring up their deaths unprompted. Five looked downcast. He had been close with Percy and Ben at one point, before their deaths. Five and Percy had once teamed up with Vanya in small scale prank wars back when they were kids—happier and more innocent. Vanya, when given the opportunity, was a mastermind behind some of their more devious pranks; she was the ideas girl, Five and Percy just made sure it would work. It also helped that Percy knew what the others were planning so her team could avoid said pranks. 

Ben was friends with everyone; pretty much all of the kids had paired off into smaller groups: Luther and Allison had always been close (they had less to fear of Reginald Hargreeves then the others, and from there they became best friends), Diego and Klaus were twin terrors—nightmares as kids, and as adults they remained close, but not as close, after Klaus left. Five, Ben, Percy and Vanya were close. Five, Six, Seven, and Eight. Ben and Five liked to do their study together. Vanya and Percy were close in that while Vanya was teaching Percy how to play the violin, Percy was teaching Vanya as many languages as she possibly could.

“Was it bad?” The question was quiet, and if Percy wasn’t listening especially for Five’s reply, she would’ve missed it. As it was, it was harder to catch Vanya’s small nod. The two stood in silence for a long time, and Percy drifted away.

* * *

The funeral was small and lacklustre. By this time it had started to rain. Ben sat on the pedestal of his statue and Percy perched on the head of statue-her. Neither Diego nor Luther had taken an umbrella, so they were sopping wet by the time the funeral started.

“Did something happen?” Mother asked, her smile still fixed on her face.

“Dad died.” Allison answered cautiously, “remember?”

“Oh.” Grace spoke and Percy peered cautiously at her. “Yes, of course.”

“Is Mum okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, she’s fine.” Diego answered shortly, “She just needs to rest. You know, recharge.”

There was a pause as Pogo approached, ready to start the service. Pogo turned to Luther.

“Whenever you’re ready, dear boy.”

Luther lifted the lid off Hargreeves’ ashes and poured them onto the ground where it stuck in a small heap. Percy laughed, Klaus winced and Ben just closed his eyes.

“This has to be the most awkward funeral I’ve ever been to.” Percy announced loudly. Ben spun around to stare at her.

“Percy!” Ben hissed. Klaus pulled his umbrella further over his head.

“Probably would’ve been better with some wind.” Luther admitted and when Percy opened her mouth to reply, Ben shushed her loudly.

“Does anyone wish to speak?”

“Me!” Percy stood up, balancing on her statue’s head. “In all honesty, Hargreeves was a major asshole. He was a bad person and a worse father—he let Ben and I die! For all I care, Sir Reginald Hargreeves could win the shittiest father in the world award just by showing off Luther or Mum. He tortured us, made us fear him so much, he dehumanised us. He didn’t even give us names! He gave Mum and Pogo names but not the children he _literally_ bought. He gave us numbers! He—”

“Percy.” Ben cut in, stopping her just as Diego stopped Pogo from talking.

“He was a monster.” _(Klaus laughed, Percy called out with a “That’s what I’m talking about!”)_ “He was a bad person and a worse father. The world’s better off without him.”

“Diego.”

“My name is Number Two. You know why? Because our father couldn’t be bothered to give us actual names. He had Mum do it.”

(“Would anyone like something to eat?”  
“No, it’s okay, Mum.”  
“Oh, okay.”)

“Look, you wanna pay your respects?” Diego’s voice rose. “Go ahead. But at least be honest about the kind of man he was.”

“You should stop talking now.”

The rain is the only sound for a long moment as Diego simply stares at Luther. Ben sucks in a long breath and Percy yells out a simple: “I want ice-cream! Klaus! Ben!”

“You know,” Diego continues—Ben, being the only one to react to her yell, “you of all people should be on my side here, _Number One_.”

“I am warning you.”

“After everything he did to you? He had to ship you a _million miles_ away—”

“Diego, stop talking.” Luther bared his teeth. _Percy let out a sharp whistle, with a quiet, “this ain’t ending well.”_

“—that’s how much he couldn’t stand the _sight _of you!”

Luther swung at Diego, who dodged easily, and Percy was thrown as she remembered that Diego was a vigilante. Diego was a knife-throwing Batman with no qualms about killing his targets. Every punch that Luther threw, Diego dodged. Allison pursed her lips, Vanya and Mother backed away.

“Boys!” Pogo called over the rain, “stop this at once!”

“Fight!” Percy yelled, being dead desensitised her to Luther and Diego’s arguments.

“Come on, big boy!” Diego yelled, just as Ben stood up in front of his statue to tell Percy off. Diego got in a few hits on Luther.  
“Stop it!” Vanya yelled, just as Klaus echoed Percy’s earlier statement of: “hit him! Hit him!”

Pogo scoffed and left, Diego rolled to behind Luther, who reached out and held him at an arm’s length away.

“Get. Off. Me.” Diego grunted and twisted out of Luther’s grip. Another few punches were thrown before Five simply had enough.  
“We don’t have time for this.” Instead of teleporting away, Five walked inside. He’d barely even gotten halfway before the two were fighting again and Five simply teleported the rest of the way.

“Come here, big boy!” Diego taunted Luther from in front of Ben, who simply raised an eyebrow and Percy let out an incredulous laugh. Luther threw a punch with all the force he could and Diego dodged. The punch went passed Diego, through Ben, and hit the statue, toppling it over.

“Oh…” Klaus drew out the syllable to a long exaggerated sound.

“Luther! You bastard!” Percy snapped, to no answer. “Diego you’re no better, taunting him like that! That was—”

“And there goes Ben’s statue.” Allison turned and left. Diego pulled out a knife and Vanya’s reaction was instantaneous.

“Diego, no!”

Diego threw the knife, skimming Luther’s arm. Furious and hurt, Luther pushed passed everyone remaining outside.

“You never know when to stop, do you?” Vanya approached Diego, her tone mild but words scalding.

“You got enough material for your sequel yet?” Diego replied instead of giving her a dignified answer.

“He was my father too,” Vanya was disappointed. She turned and left as well, leaving just Mother, Diego, and Klaus-Ben-&-Percy. Diego didn’t waste a moment, just guided their Mother back inside.  
Klaus waited for a moment longer, he gave Ben a once-over, checking to see if he was alright and checked Percy over as well, she was still perched on top of her statue. Klaus crouched next to the pile of ashes simply heaped on the ground. 

“I bet you’re loving this. Hmm?” He rocked back and forwards a bit, “the team at its best. It’s just like old times.” Klaus took another long drag on his cigarette and walked back towards the house. “Best funeral ever.”

* * *

Percy watched as Vanya and Pogo spoke, laughing shortly as Pogo spoke about the academy being a home. She simply sighed in disbelief as Pogo said that Hargreeves loved them, and gladly joined her sister in shooting that train of thought down.

She then followed Allison to the kitchen, where Five was searching the cabinets and Klaus was clutching a guitar.

“Why are you cradling a guitar, Klaus?”

“I don’t think he has any idea, Percy.” Ben replied, “but the real question should actually be; where did you get a guitar, Klaus?”

“Where’s Vanya?” Allison asked.

“Oh, she’s gone.” Percy scoffed when Klaus answered Allison but not Ben and her.

“That’s unfortunate.” Five announced, holding an empty jar.

“Yeah.” Allison agreed, clearly thinking that Five was talking about Vanya.

“An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee.”

“Dad hated caffeine.” Allison argued.

“Well, he hated children, too, and he had plenty of us.” Klaus laughed, Percy and Ben joined in, but Allison and Five just ignored him.

“I’m taking the car.” Five announced.

“Where are you going?” Klaus asked slowly, getting up.

“To get a decent cup of coffee.” Five snarked right back. Percy laughed and Klaus shot her a barely disguised look of betrayal.

“Do you even know how to drive?”

“I know how to do everything.” Five jumped away and Klaus reached out to stop him.

“I feel like we should try and stop him, but then again, I also kinda want to see what happens.” Outside, the car started up as Five drove away. Barely a minute later, Diego walked.

“All right, I guess I’ll see you guys in, what, ten years?” He said loudly, already packed. “When Pogo dies?”

“Not if you die first.”

“Yeah, love you too, sis. Good luck on your next film.” He leaned forward, “hope it turns out better than your marriage, huh?”

She glared and Percy wanted to hit him.

“Are—are we leaving?” Klaus asked, following behind Diego like a lost puppy.

“No, _I’m_ leaving, me by myself.”

“Oh, fabulous! I’ll get my things.”

* * *

Percy and Ben, having nothing to grab, simply trailed behind Diego, knowing, that he wouldn’t leave Klaus behind. Diego closed his door and jumped when Klaus announced his arrival with a loud exclamation. Ben sat next to Klaus in the back, while Percy claimed the front seat. 

They drove for a while until they reached the lake. Ben flicked his hood up and just sat there while Klaus chatted about dinner with Percy.

“Yoo-hoo, Diego! I hate to rush you through any kind of brooding moment you might be having, but come on, man, we’re starving!”

Diego didn’t move and Klaus pulled the door shut. Ben didn’t move, just sat there. Percy spun round to face the two.

“I’m craving… eggs. Hmm, no! Wait, it’s too late for eggs. Waffles. Huh?” He turned to Ben and Percy, and they turned to face Klaus. “You like waffles, right?” Ben nodded. “Ah. Of course, you do. Everyone likes waffles.”

“I want ice-cream, too.” Percy reminded Klaus. Just as Diego closed his door.

“Diego, thank you for joining us.” Klaus announced, “we have decided on, drum roll, waffles.”

“Hey!” Percy protested.

“I’m gonna drop you off at the bus stop.” Diego said calmly, “I gotta get back to work.”

“What, breaking bones and cracking skulls?” Klaus’ voice was purely and simply, pained.

“Saving lives, baby.” Diego replied.

“Well,” Klaus faced Ben, and Percy spun around. “I guess it’s frozen waffles again.”

Diego checked his rearview mirror, and Percy caught him trying to see what Klaus could see. All Diego could see was himself and Klaus. She and Ben were invisible. All but non-existent.

“What about egg and bacon?” Percy asked.

“Yeah, I could do egg and bacon, but I’m trying to cut down on my pig products.”

"Ah," Percy grinned back at the two of them. "Makes sense, you know."


	7. 7 Days

Ben read, Klaus slept and Percy sat on the coffee table as she levitated it. It was getting easier the longer she was dead, more submerged in the foggy existence of a ghost. She had long forgotten how it felt to be truly _alive_ in every sense of the word; to taste the food, to touch things. Wearing the same thing for sixteen years was not comfortable in any way, she knew every stitch of her hoodie and every thread in her socks. The jewellery she’d stolen from the dead Arabian queen a couple of years back, was newer, but she still knew it like the back of her hand. Percy missed giving people hugs, she missed having Makeover-And-Music days with Allison, Vanya, and Klaus back when they were kids; even though she'd always found Allison to be pretty scary. Percy missed sleep. At this point, she’d spent more than half her existence dead and unable to sleep or eat.

Klaus sat up. Panting. The dead—that wasn’t Percy or Ben—abruptly cut off their shrieks and faded into the background. How kind of them.

“You know you talk in your sleep?” Ben asked and flicked onto the next page of his book.

“Oh…” Klaus paused to properly wake up. As soon as he knew what was happening he dropped to the floor in a vain search for drugs. Percy made the coffee table rise higher but listened intently to the conversation.

“There’s no point.” Ben continued dryly, “you’re out of drugs.”

“Shut your pie-hole, Ben.” Klaus snapped, then paused, and continued, “said with love.”

“I’ve got a crazy idea.” Ben said sweetly, he turned the page and simply stared at Klaus. “Why don’t you start the day with a glass of orange juice. Or some eggs?”

“Can’t smoke eggs.” Klaus replied instantly as if that finished the conversation. He made for the cabinets. “One of these has got to be gold plated, right?”

“Can’t smoke gold plates either, Klaus.” Percy yelled. Both Ben and Klaus flinched.

“Percy!” Ben hissed just as Pogo cleared his throat. Percy dropped the coffee table with a loud bang. Percy fell off and bounced right back onto her feet, adopting a look of pure innocence that only Ben and Klaus could see as if trying to say 'I didn't do it'. Pogo jumped, staring at the table.

“Christ on a cracker! Pogo?”

“My apologies, Master Klaus.” Pogo was distracted, staring intently at the coffee table as though it would disappear. Percy coughed to cover a laugh, and Ben just turned another page in his book. “I have a query for you.”

“Oh?” Klaus had no business looking as innocent as he did then.

“Items from your father’s office have gone missing.” Pogo explained, “In particular, an ornate box with a pearl inlay.”

Ben turned around and watched Klaus. Percy vaulted over the table and watched as well.

“Really?” Ben sounded almost disappointed as if he hadn’t been right beside Percy in pointing out valuables to steal and saying how much they were worth.

“Really?” Klaus echoed, starting to look more uncomfortable by the minute. “You don’t say.”

“Any idea where it went?”

There was a long uncomfortable silence where Percy and Ben _knew_ Klaus was remembering selling the box too.

“No, no.” Klaus finally replied. “No idea. Sorry.”

“Liar,” Ben spoke dryly, and Percy laughed outright, levitating a book off the shelves behind Pogo.

“Drop dead.” Klaus hissed and Percy turned the page, not reading a word.

“Low blow.” Ben spun round to face Klaus.

“Would you shut up!”

“Excuse me?” Pogo sounded affronted, clearly only hearing one half of the conversation. As sobering as that realisation was, it was hilarious watching Klaus try to do damage control.

“Pogo, I didn’t mean you, I just… I—” when he started to stammer, then bullshit his way through an explanation, Percy exchanged a look with Ben. “You know, there’s been a lot of stuff I’ve been dealing with. Just a lot of memories coming up. All those good times. Well, not so many good times as really awful, terrible, depressing times.”

“The contents of that box are… priceless.” Pogo interjects, doing what Percy’s wanted to do for the past few minutes. “Were they to find their way back to the office, whoever took it would be absolved of any blame or consequences.”

“Oh, well, lucky bastard.” Klaus wanted that if the panicky feeling that was rolling off him was any indication.

“Indeed.”

* * *

Percy stuck her head through the closet door when she heard Vanya walk in. She watched Vanya sigh in relief before narrating the whole interaction to Klaus and Ben, still hiding in the closet.

“No, look, I’m the one that should be sorry.” Vanya said quietly, fully entering the room. Five walked forward as she continued. “Yeah, I was dismissive, and... I—I guess I didn’t know how to process what you were saying. And I still can’t, to be honest.”

“Maybe you were right to be dismissive.” Five admitted, and if it weren’t for the fact that she, Ben and Klaus were hiding in the closet ready to follow Five on his hunt for the owner of the eye he carried, Percy would’ve believed him. “Maybe it wasn’t real after all. It felt real. Well... like you said the old man did say time travel could contaminate the mind.”

“Then maybe I’m not the right person for you to be talking to.” Vanya seemed especially nervous, something that Percy made sure to relay to her siblings. “Look, I used to see someone. A therapist. I could give you her information.”

“Thanks, but... I think I’m just gonna get some rest. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a good sleep.”

“Okay,” Vanya nodded, satisfied that her point had been said. She left and Percy walked through the closet door. Ben followed as Five rushed to the door to check if Vanya was gone. 

“That’s so…” Klaus followed with a loud clatter, bring pretty much the whole closet with him. “touching, all that stuff about family and Dad and time. _Wow!_”

“Would you shut up? She’ll hear you.” Five snapped. _(“I’m moist.” Klaus said, Ben facepalmed and Percy gave Five bunny ears.)_ He paused, “I told you to put on something professional.”

“What?” Klaus asked, affronted. “This is my nicest outfit.”

“He’s right, Five-y,” Percy shouted, as though that would make him hear her. Five scoffed.

“We’ll raid the old man’s closet.” Five led the way out of the room.

“Whatever, as long as I get paid.” Klaus followed.

“He’s not going to pay you, Klaus,” Ben said, just as Five promised. _(“When the job is done.”)_

“Okay,” Klaus replied—to who, no one was quite so sure, “but just so we’re clear on the finer _details_, I just gotta go into this place, and pretend to be your dear old dad, correct?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Hey, look at us!” Percy announced, “Just dear old, Klaus aka. _Papa Numéro Deux_ and three teens, Five at thirteen—_treize ans_, fourteen—_quatorze ans_—_moi_, and Ben at sweet sixteen—_seize ans_.”

“What’s our cover story?” Klaus asked suddenly.

"What?" Five seemed just as startled as the rest of them, "what are you talking about?"

"_I mean_," Klaus continued with a minute eye-roll, he continued in an overly dramatic way, "was I _really_ young when I had you? Like, sixteen? Like young and... _terribly_ misguided?"

"Sure." That seemed to be the most anyone could say to Klaus' dramatics.

"Your mother, that _slut_." Klaus continued having hardly paused at all, Percy snorted and Ben clapped a hand over her mouth; she licked it. "Whoever she was. We met at... the disco." 

Klaus stared right at Five and laughed. "Okay? Remember that." he snapped his fingers, "Oh, my god, the sex was _amazing_."

"What a disturbing glimpse into that thing you call a brain." Five interrupted, and Ben took his hand away, wiping it on the back of Percy's hoodie, her braid over her shoulder, and thus out of the way.

"Don't make me put you in time-out."

* * *

They arrived at the prosthetics company’s headquarters with Five driving and Klaus keeping a running commentary going. Together as a group of four that only has two visible members, they entered. After a quick word with the receptionist, they were directed into a glass office. The worker, who had a very forgettable face and name, spoke tensely and quickly, clearly wanting to be anywhere but there. Percy decided to be nice to Five and read the man’s mind, to take everything she could find from his files. To conserve energy she took the shortcut through Klaus’ mind.

He was running a black market in prosthetics.

Out of all the things in his mind, that was the most surprising. The one that jumped out at her.

"Hey," Percy said softly to Klaus. "This guy is a real dick. A huge jerk. I'm surprised he's not in prison." 

"What do you mean, Percy?" Ben asked for Klaus.

"He's running a black market!"

"As I said to your son earlier, any information about the prosthetics we build is strictly confidential." Lance said tersely, "Without the client's consent, I simply can't help you."

"Well, we can't get consent if you don't give us a name."

"Well, that's not my problem." Lance seemed eager to rush them all out of the office. "Sorry. Now, there's nothing more I can do, so—"

"And what about _my_ consent?" Klaus interrupted.

"Excuse me?"

"Who gave you permission..." Klaus' voice wobbled with false tears, "...to lay your hands..." he pointed at Five, "...on my son?"

"What?" both Five and Lance spoke at the same time, Lance continued, "I didn't touch your son."

"Oh, _really_?" Klaus was just getting started, both himself and his voice rose with the next words, "how did he get that swollen lip, then?"

Lance frowned, his words were steady even as the tension rose in the room. "He doesn't have a swollen—"

Klaus punched Five right in the face and lent over the desk.

"I want it. Name, please. Now."

"You're crazy." Lance's voice had a slight shake, and Percy could tell he was getting scared.

"You got no idea," Klaus said brightly, he picked up the snowglobe on Lance's desk and looked at it, considering. "'Peace on Earth.' That's so sweet."

He smashed it on his head and blinked the liquid and glitter out of his eyes.

_"God that hurt!"_

Lance seemed to finally realise that he could do something because he reached for his phone. His phone that Percy was now levitating just out of reach.

"Now, here's what's going to happen, Grant." Klaus said dangerously, ("It's...Lance," Lance corrected.) "We—my siblings and I—can seriously hurt you. And guess what? We don't care."

Lance leant back to get away from Klaus.

"My sister has been _dying_ to get some action for sixteen years," Klaus continued, mimicking a combination of Ben and Percy, "and she doesn't care that _you_ have a life, or a dog, or even that black market prosthetics business you're running."

Lance went four shades paler. Five looked impressed and worried at the same time, but mostly impressed.

"And my brother just wants to finish his book and you are standing in his way, because of that he will tear you limb from limb. So," Klaus spoke directly to Lance, "You are going to look up that name for us, both on the books and off. And then you will never speak of this again."

"You are a real sick bastard," Lance managed to spit out in between hyperventilating.

"Thank you." Klaus' voice went an octave deeper, he kept eye-contact with Lance as he spat out a shard of glass. Five's proud grin lit up his whole face.

They followed Lance to the records room and watched as Lance found the records; Klaus sat on the cabinet, Five stood so he could stare directly into Lance's face.

"Oh, that's strange," Lance said suddenly, glancing in barely disguised fear to Klaus.

"What?" Five snapped.

"Uh, the eye," Lance replied, looking at Five. "It hasn't been purchased by a client yet."

"What? What do you mean?" Klaus asked, getting right into Lance's personal space.

"Well, uh, our logs say that the eye with that serial number..." Lance was now certainly frightened of Klaus, "This can't be right. It hasn't even been manufactured yet."

"Uh, uh, ah!" Klaus sang loudly, "what about your black market, Grant? Have you checked that yet?"

Lance led them back to a safe in his office. There he unlocked it and pulled out file after file. He sorted through them until he found the one where the eye should have been.

"Still hasn't been sold or manufactured," Lance said, quieter than before. He looked at Five, forgetting Klaus for a moment. "Where did you get that eye?"

* * *

"Well, this is not good."

Five's statement was met with general incredulous looks. Ben frowned at him, thinking about his simultaneously younger and older brother's reactions. Percy gave Five the benefit of doubt. He had every right to be panicked and stressed.

“I was pretty good, though, right?" Klaus asked as if hoping for a good answer, "‘Yeah. What about _my_ consent, bitch?’”

“Klaus, it doesn’t matter.”

“What?" Percy asked, disgruntled with not being given the recognition she had earned. "Yes it does, Five-y. You've ruled out a possible lead, now go to Vanya and give her the love and support that had been denied to her."

_("Why Vanya?" Ben asked._

_"Because she causes the apocalypse with her powers," Percy replied.)_

"What?" Klaus asked, to whom, no one knew. It was proven to be Five because he then asked: "What’s the big deal with this eye, anyway?”

“There is someone out there who’s going to lose an eye in the next seven days." Five snapped, eyes going a little wild. "They’re gonna bring about the end of life on this earth as we know it.”

Klaus stopped and gave Five his undivided attention. "Wait, what?" he paused, but when Five offered no explanation he continued. "Seven days? End of life as we know it? Vanya has powers?"

The last question got Five's attention. He and Klaus sat on the steps of the MeriTech building.

"Vanya has powers?" Five echoed. "Since when?"

"Since forever," Percy replied, "Which you would _know_ if you hadn't _asked Dad about them_ when we were four and Allison hadn't rumoured you guys."

Klaus repeated her statement so Five could understand it. Both then frowned and thought it over. After a long moment, Five muttered something about coffee and a loose floorboard under a bed and jumped away. It seemed Five had reached his limit of new life-altering information and had to escape.

Percy just hoped he found her notes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so to make percy easier to understand i wrote a character study on her there it gives info about her notes
> 
> canon is changing now!
> 
> i can promise that some things will stay the same cough Dave cough.


	8. 6 Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't read the prequel _'To Win The Game You Kill The King'_ yet then it would be a good idea to at least have a skim read through it as it takes elements from that and transferred it over to here. 
> 
> Just a shorter chapter today. But because I'm on holidays chapters should be quicker than before.

Percy frowned, watching as Five sewed up the wound on his arm and stuck a bandaid on it. Klaus was sorting through garbage while Ben watched and she was watching Five. She'd followed him to the department store to pick up Delores, watched as he fought with Hazel and Cha-Cha (whom she only recognised because of Five's memories), and even watched as he stopped outside her old room. As far as she could tell—she'd avoided that room after she'd died—no one had touched it. Five did not enter for a long time, simply standing there for a long moment. Feeling petty, maybe, forgotten, Percy entered his mind.

Five's mind was organised and tidy, with a large, bright, light and several cracks in his mirror. There were a couple of drawers locked, but there were not as many as she had expected. There was a whole cabinet dedicated to the Hargreeves family, and Percy quickly found her drawer. There she found the files on Five's last day before he vanished. And the conversation about her notes hidden under the loose floorboard under her bed.

Persephone's notes and collections were a detailed and extensive study on each of the sibling's powers—even Vanya's. There was also her collection of things she'd stolen from her siblings, things that they'd made, milestones they'd hit and general items that held significance to her. There was also a detailed list of what their dad did and when, and her thoughts on why and what the reactions were.

On Five's last day, she'd told him that if anything happened to her, he was to look at them, he was to use them however he could. She'd told him, and then the very next day he ran. When Percy picked up the file that held Five's memory of that event, she could feel the guilt and worry Five held over that memory. Percy moved the file to Five's desk, added a note saying it could help with his apocalypse search, and placed it directly into the light. Then, satisfied, she left his mind and nearly fell over due to mental exhaustion. There would almost certainly be no more use of her powers until she got enough energy back—or leeched enough off Klaus. Once out of Five's mind—and when she got enough of a bearing that she could focus—she watched as he remembered the memory she'd added too. Then, as it took effect, she followed him into her old room.

It was weird and a little alien being in her room after so long. Percy knew that Five hadn't been in her room for years before he vanished. After all, her room was such a private place, especially towards the end.

Five paused halfway to the bed, looking around. There were tears in his eyes when he turned enough for her to see, tears that he hastily wiped away. Then he continued, at a slow but steady pace, towards the carefully made bed. He—with great difficulty—moved the bed away, to clear up room for him to look for the board. Five pushed on every board in the area the bed had taken up until he found the one (actually a couple stuck together that disguised a pretty big hole in the floor—it was the only reason she'd managed to fit everything; including the boxes her collection was stored in) that made an ominous creak and bent slightly. They were distinguishable from the others due to the gap around the edge, something that Five found and used. He first tried to use just his fingers and nails to pry the boards from their spots, but when that didn't work, he found something flat and strong to use instead. It was just how she'd remembered. All neatly packed away and clearly labelled. Seven boxes—small enough to fit but big enough to hold everything, and a couple of notebooks. The stuff she'd taken from Five's hidey-hole filling the gaps. Those things weren't as neatly packed but they were neat enough.

Five went for the box with his name on it first. He pulled everything out and lay it on the floor, easily seen. The stuff he knew of—the things she'd taken from him—were put to one side. When he opened his box and saw all of his old things he did cry. The tears dripped off his face and onto the top thing in his box; his stuffed bear. It was the same one that Mother had bought all of them back when they were young, just when the nannies first started to leave them alone at night, back when Klaus and Vanya couldn't sleep on their own. Five had named his 'King Bear-Bear' and Mother had stitched the name into the bear's foot, just like she'd done with each siblings' bear and domino masks.

In every single box, there was the bear that Mother had given them. Luther had called his Europa after the moon orbiting Jupiter that may have once sustained life. Diego's bear was called Hippo (to everyone's confusion, Hippo was _clearly_ a bear). Allison's bear was named Tatiana and when asked why she responded with 'it sounded pretty.' Klaus had named his Bee-Bee, and when he said it always sounded younger than it was meant too. Ben's bear was a play on his favourite characters from Alice In Wonderland: Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Ben's bear was thus named: Tweedle-bee. Vanya's bear was named Mozart after the famous composer.

"King Bear-Bear?" Five asked, seeming smaller and younger than he was, "when? Persephone?"

King Bear-Bear was placed gently next to the box and the next thing picked up. An old metal and woodwork project from when they were eight. It was an engraved metal lid on a wooden pencil case. The engraving read: _'Number Five'_ and _'1997'_. He opened it, wiping away sixteen-year-old dust and staring at the simple pencils sat inside. Five put his pencil case down and picked up the domino mask that sat under it and on top of the papers. Sewn on to the base of the simple mask was _'Number Five 1996'_. Quicker than he had anything else, Five put the mask aside and started on the papers.

When Percy looked over Five's shoulder she saw his essay on the theory of time travel written when they were just turning thirteen. Five's handwriting—slightly messier than now, and certainly more smudged—shone on the page, yellowing with age. Five put it down next to King Bear-Bear and moved on to the next thing: an envelope. When Five opened the envelope a thick stack of polaroid photos fell out. Every single picture showed Five and Percy together in some way. Five let out a choked gasp and made sure to look through every single one before carefully putting them all back into the envelope. Then the envelope was put on top of his essay.

"How long have you been doing this for, Persephone?" Five asked quietly, "how long were you planning this?"

The next item to come out of Five's box was the painting he spent at least six months on and had been very proud of it; even though it was wobbly and shaky and the colours didn't work well and he didn't have much skill for art. When Five pulled the painting out and saw that it was his art project from when they were eleven he cried again. Five put the painting on top of the envelope and pulled out the next stack of sheets with his handwriting on it. When he skimmed through the top he saw that it was covered in scornful notes on religion and small sketches as well as notes in the margins and across the pages that had nothing to do with religion. Some of the notes—coming back to it twenty years later—were hilarious and the funniest things Five had written. Even Five seemed to think along the lines of what she was as he laughed quietly to himself for a couple of minutes before putting the notes on the growing pile of papers. 

The last thing in the box was a yellowing and wrinkled drawing of the whole family. It was drawn in blue crayon and depicted a stick figure family of eight kids, Mother and Pogo. Each kid was clearly labelled with the messy script of a toddler. In the corner was Five's signature from when he was younger, _'5ive'_. Five was openly sobbing when he carefully put each object (apart from his pencil case and the envelope of photos) back into his box. Then, shakily, he opened each of his siblings' boxes. A quick flick through showed that it was similar objects with each box, Five didn't do a detailed look through feeling that it was a very private thing. Instead, he turned to the notebooks. However, when he opened them to read through, he found he couldn't. Not because he couldn't read but because he couldn't understand the languages.

"What languages are written in this?" Five asked incredulously frantically flipping through the notebook for any English at all. The only Engish was their names (including Five's). There's what seems to be a chapter for each, and the language changed each chapter. Luther's was written in Greek like the majority of the book as well as Mother and Pogo's sections. Diego's chapter was in Spanish and Allison's in Swahili. Klaus' chapter was written in German and Five's chapter was in Hebrew. Ben's chapter was written in Hangul and Vanya's in Russian. Five knew some words from his Hebrew lessons but he was in no way fluent, nor could he recognise any of the words in the book and thus would require a translation by someone who could read it.

He carefully stacked each box and notebook into his huge bag, taking Dolores out as well as all the alcohol bottles he'd had stashed in. The fake IDs were no longer relevant or needed and he left the bag of cash in the hole in the floor with the IDs. Then Five took Dolores and the bottles back into his room and sat them on his bed. He kept the boxes and notebooks with him and then pushed up the window and climbed down the fire escape. Percy followed him, dodging Ben who was seated on the edge and Klaus who was rooting around the trash for the papers he was looking for. When Five spotted Klaus he hastily dried his eyes.

"Damn it!" Klaus yelled all of a sudden, "where's Dad's stuff!?"

"Can we go see a movie or something?" Ben answered, not caring whether or not Klaus found what he was looking for. "Or the ocean?"

"Shut up!" Klaus snapped, "I'm trying to find whatever... priceless crap was in that priceless box so that Pogo will get off my ass!"

"I'd ask what you're up to Klaus, but then it occurred to me..." Five said in his hilarious snark, his voice didn't even shake, "I don't care."

"Hey," Klaus answered, "You know there are easier ways out of the house, buddy?"

"This one involved the least amount of talking. Or so I thought."

"Hey, hey, hey, so..." Klaus followed Five quickly, "You need any more company today? I could, uh... clear my schedule."

Ben and Percy exchanged a look.

"He found my things," Percy said.

"Ah, right," Ben replied.

"No, no, no." Five insisted, holding the notebook like a lifeline. "You look like you have your hands full. Besides, I'm just going to the library for a translation, not anything I need anyone for."

* * *

The whole family—minus Five—were in the living room watching the tiny TV surveillance footage of Hargreeves' death.

"I mean, do you _really_ think Mum would hurt Dad?" Vanya asked.

"You haven't been home in a long time, Vanya." Luther said shortly, "Maybe you don't know Grace anymore."

"If he was poisoned," Diego snapped, "It would have shown in the coroner's report."

"He wasn't poisoned," Percy told Klaus and Ben conspiratorily, as Luther and Diego messed with the video. "He killed himself. I heard Pogo saying it."

"What?" Ben asked. Klaus didn't react outwardly but both ghost siblings knew he was surprised.

"She wasn't poisoning him. She was... taking it. To clean it."

"Besides," Klaus interrupted before Luther could say anything. "Dad didn't get murdered. It was suicide—nobody killed him."

There was a long silence as everyone stared at Klaus.

"Tell everyone you got sober last night and summoned Dad." Ben said suddenly, "tell them that he said it and when you asked Pogo he said it was true."

"You know this how?" Luther asked dismissively, "Dad wasn't suicidal."

Klaus shrugged and ran with Ben's suggestion. "I got sober last night, just for the night, and summoned Dad." He shrugged, "asked him about what killed him, he told me in his batshit way that he was very disappointed we all hadn't figured it out, and said it was suicide and then Pogo confirmed it later on."

"What?" This time it was Allison that asked. Spotting Pogo walking past the doorway she called out and got his attention. "Pogo is he right? Did Dad kill himself?"

Pogo sighed and nodded. "Yes, Miss Allison. Master Hargreeves did kill himself and regretfully I helped him enact his plan. Grace's programming was adjusted to make her incapable of administering first aid on that night. Her programming will be readjusted now that you have figured it out and there is no need for the mystery any more."

"What?" Luther asked softly, "Why would he do that? Are there any _other_ secrets we should know about?"

"Ooh!" Percy jumped up and down continuously waving her arms to get Klaus' attention. "Tell them about the notebooks and boxes Five found under my bed!"

_"The what?"_ Klaus hissed, "Five found notebooks and boxes?"

"What notebooks and boxes, Klaus?" Diego asked, pronouncing every word carefully. "What are you talking about?"

Klaus ignored him, focusing entirely on Percy. "I already asked, Perse," he hissed as Diego watched with a raised eyebrow, "what boxes? What notebooks? You told _Five_ but not me? How? Forgive me, but you are _dead_."

"I _know_ I'm dead, Klaus." Percy stopped trying to get his attention and turned to Ben. "To answer the questions you asked, I told Five seventeen years ago, the notebooks have all the information about you all, but it's in an unbreakable code—using multiple languages and ciphers. No one will be reading those. Not even Five—bless him for trying. Nah, he'd have to find the ciphers I used _and_ read the languages. All seven of them."

Klaus frowned, thinking it through. Before he could ask another question, Ben cut him off.

"Where is Five now? We have to help him. Those notebooks could help those lunatics get their acts together and beat the apocalypse."

"He's at the library!" Klaus said suddenly, startling every living person in the room. "I remember now! He was going to get translations of your notebooks."

"Who are you talking about, Klaus?" Allison asked, cutting off her conversation with Luther and Vanya. "Diego? Who is it?"

"Beats me," Diego answered, "I've been listening in and I still have no idea."

"We gotta find him and Percy's gotta translate," Ben said, all three ignoring the rest of the family.

"Why have _I_ gotta translate?" Percy whined, "Why can't we just let him figure it out?"

"Because you wrote the damn thing!" Klaus snapped, getting up to leave. "You made it ridiculously hard to decipher, Perse. That's why _you_ have to translate. It's your fault you wrote it in _seven fucking languages._"

Percy and Ben led the way, chatting all the while, while Klaus didn't even look at their siblings when he walked out. 

All three were so distracted with finding which library Five would go to, that none of them noticed the two fancily-dressed people standing in the entryway.

* * *

Neither Percy, Ben nor Klaus notice the overly well-dressed people—that Percy called Hazel and Cha-Cha—until Klaus is being knocked out and stuffed into the boot of a car. Hazel and Cha-Cha spent some time arguing about what they were going to do with him, they decided on tying him up and taking him back to where ever they came from.

Ben turned to Percy for help, but she'd used all her energy on Five that morning and was thus unable to do anything. Plus with Klaus being knocked out, she couldn't leech any energy off him to use.

Slowly, as a result of Klaus having been knocked out, Percy and Ben were both slowly reverting to their 'just-been-killed-in-traumatic-and-brutal-way' look. Percy faster than Ben, just because she'd used a lot of her stored energy up. The lack of energy did mean that they could only watch as the two masked assassins attacked the house.

They watched as Hazel and Cha-Cha systematically attacked the living people. In the time since Klaus had left the room, the rest had dispersed. Luther and Allison went up to the roof for a short smoke and to absorb what was going on with Pogo, Grace and Hargreeves. Diego and Vanya just wandered the house, trying to figure out what to do, or what to think. Thus Hazel and Cha-Cha found Diego first.

Diego fought with everything he had, and again Percy was thrown by the fact that Diego did this for a living. Fighting with the intent to kill most nights, and boxing, as a job, during the day. Diego was good but Hazel and Cha-Cha were better, after all, there was two of them and one of him. they pushed him back into the living room just as Luther and Allison got the jump on the two intruders. The fight seemed to take an age, Diego crouched behind a lounge while Luther and Allison took on an attacker each. Once again Percy was confronted with the fact that Allison did all her stunts for every one of her movies, and as a result kept up with her fighting skills. Luther, however, wasn't at the top of his game. He wasn't in the right body, hating the bulky form he was given and that transferred into his fighting skills.

Cha-Cha chased Allison and Diego through the house and Vanya came down the stairs only to be attacked by Hazel. Luther fought Hazel while Diego and Allison turned the tide on Cha-Cha. Just as Hazel beat Luther, Allison and Diego came tearing through on a warpath. Ben tried to help but Hazel just walked through him. Percy kept tabs on each of her siblings, ready to tear her soul apart to help them; because that's what happened when a ghost uses up more energy than they have.

The chandelier was dropped on Luther and Hazel and Cha-Cha managed to get away with Klaus in their car. Percy and Ben watched with their siblings as Luther got right back up, his clothes torn, body on display. They watched as Luther tore past Diego and upstairs, ignoring anyone and pushing them away. Grace's humming distracted Diego and Ben; while they rushed up the stairs, Percy followed Hazel and Cha-Cha back to the motel they were staying at. She watched as they popped the boot and stared down at Klaus—who started screaming behind his gag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon has nearly been thrown out of the window. Our little manipulative ghost is really shaking the timeline.


	9. 5 Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five and Eudora Patch (bamf goddess, we stan in this house) have a pov in this one!!

"Number Five, where is he?" Cha-Cha snapped. Hazel and Cha-Cha had been torturing him for over ten hours and it was clear they were getting nowhere. Percy turned away and ignored them as Klaus turned the tables on his tormentors. Ben watched with disbelief.

"It's okay, Percy," Ben said after a moment, and she turned back around to Klaus laughing.

"What is so funny, asshole?" Hazel snapped, getting up just to slap Klaus.

"Well, for one," Klaus answered, "you spent the last ten hours... beating me senseless, and... you've learned absolutely nothing." he ducked his head for just a moment then lifted it again. He continued to speak in the same slow pace, "I mean, nobody tells me shit. The truth is, I'm the one person in that house nobody will even notice is gone. You assholes kidnapped the wrong guy!"

It hurt to admit, even just to herself, that Klaus was right in that instant. Over the hours that Klaus had been tortured, Percy had visited their siblings. Not one of them had even thought about what may have happened to him. None of them considered the fact that he hadn't wandered off. Hazel slapped Klaus again and it sounded like a cannon in the near-silent room.

"Ow!" Klaus hung his head, "I'm sorry okay?"

"Please make him stop talking." Hazel hissed to Cha-Cha; she thought for a moment.

"Let's waterboard him."

"No!" Ben reached out, his hands phasing through Klaus unable to stop the two time-travelling assassins from waterboarding his brother. Thankfully they'd all received lessons on how to withstand torture and that sort of thing doesn't just go away, not even after years of drug use dulling the senses.

"Ah!" Klaus sighed in relief after drinking most of the water they poured over his face, "Oh, I needed that."

"Oh come on!" Hazel turned, throwing his hands into the air as though trying to get some heavenly power to intervene. Percy huffed out a short laugh.

"I was..." Klaus paused, "so parched. Thank you. Thank you."

Hazel and Cha-Cha left to reconvene in the bathroom.

* * *

Five sat in a secluded corner of the library simply staring at the notebook. It was in code. Of-fucking-course, it was in code. Percy couldn't have just anyone reading it, she had to have it illegible to anyone but herself. He nearly threw the book across the room in a flash of anger so sharp it cut like a knife through the apathy.

"Why?" Five asked suddenly to nobody, "Why did she have to leave no hints?"

Almost to pretend he was being productive, Five opened his pencil case again. To put off looking at the book, he emptied the wooden box of all the pencils and pens and highlighters that had been shoved inside. One by one, they were lined up on the table until nothing remained in the pencil case. Or at least at first sight. The base of Five's pencil case was not in fact wood at all, instead, a lining of paper, stained with the same stain the wood had.

When Five tried to dig his fingers around to get the paper out he sliced his finger open on the edge, hissing in pain he used a small splinter on the base of the pencil case to get the corner up, then used his fingers to pull the rest. Once the papers were out of the case, he shoved the stationary back in and dropped the pencil case into his box. When he unfurled the papers he saw it was a letter, written to him in Percy's messy but legible handwriting and signed _'Number Eight'_.

* * *

_Five,_

_Gotta say, you sure know how to make a spectacle. It's been a couple of months since  
you left, in the middle of dinner, no less! Things haven't been the same, everyone's  
on edge and just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I have a feeling it's going to have  
something to do with me._

_Dad's been selling information to some unknown third party. Information about us,  
our powers, our lives, how we react to certain stimuli. He knows I know about Vanya's  
powers, there's a chapter about them in my notebook, it's a caesar cypher written in  
Russian, move every letter seven spaces. In Vanya's pencil case there's her cypher wheel  
thingy that I made to help. Each of you should have a cypher wheel in your boxes  
somewhere. It will help with the deciphering of the notebook, I am sure.  
(also clues are hidden elsewhere in amongst other things our siblings own)_

_Five. I am sorry. I started writing this a month ago and then just forgot. Dad's  
saying that the royal family is coming soon. Like in a month soon. I have to say, I  
am looking forward to it. Live TV all across the globe? Powerful microphones that  
would broadcast everything anyone says to all of those TVs? Sign me up. It's the  
perfect opportunity to tell the world everything. Including personal training and all  
of our powers and the forty-three. I could tell the world about how Dad tortures us  
often and how we have no choice. We were child soldiers and this could be my chance  
to get us out of this situation. I could change the game! You forfeited, you threw your  
king in and got out. I want the same. I'm tired Five. I don't care about whether or not  
Dad will hunt me down. I only really care about whether or not the others get out.  
Even Luther. _

_Five, I think Dad's planning a death. I can't prove anything, but I saw a note, written  
in typewriter-font on a rectangle piece of paper. There were two words on it but I  
didn't look because I didn't want to know. I'm beginning to think that maybe there's  
another player in the game. One down three to go, you know? You, me, Dad and  
this third-party. Most of his business trips are just selling information to these  
people in suits and carrying briefcases. Like really big and thick briefcases.  
It's painful really. Five, what if the terminate order is for me? I honestly think that  
might be better for everyone. Yeah, it means Dad wins, but really? I can't say anything  
to do with Vanya's powers to anyone or he'll kill her. You're gone. I can't help any of  
the others cause they won't let me. Too scared I'll blurt out a secret that they wanted  
to be kept hidden, no doubt.  
_

_ So. The terminate order is for me (I included it in this envelope for if you want to  
see it.) The royal family are coming in two days and I just have to stay alive until then.  
With me dying right after revealing everything the general population will have no choice  
but to listen. I've updated everything, my notebooks and collections. I've put all of the  
money I could steal from Dad and Pogo into my savings down there. That should be  
enough to allow our siblings to run and survive for long enough. Fingers crossed my plan  
works. Wish me luck, Letter-Five.  
_

_Goodbye Five,  
Hope you're happy wherever you are.  
  
Number Eight_

* * *

Five reached the end of the letter with tears in his eyes. He put aside the notebook in favour of asking a librarian for the footage of her death, in hopes he would be able to figure out who did it once and for all. Over and over, he watched a lively Percy walk forward, her hand held out to shake. Over and over, Five watched her open her mouth to speak and then, in the blink of an eye, be lying on the ground, eyes glassy and a pool of blood surrounding her.

Five had no idea how long he'd spent working on Percy's things and investigating her death. It was long enough that Luther and Diego had gone looking for him, as both of them sat down in the chairs opposite him at his little table.

"Five?" Diego asked, quietly because they were still in the library, "What are you doing? Klaus isn't here right?"

"I'm working and no." Five snapped, looking through Percy's letter again. The words 'suit' and 'briefcase' jumped out at him, along with Percy's description of the terminate order. It just didn't make sense though, why would Reginald Hargreeves work with the Commission? What would he have to gain from selling them out? It made sense in a fucked up and messy way. It explained how he knew about the apocalypse. It explained Percy's death and how the Handler would always give him that _look_, the one that meant she knew something that he would want to know.

"Five." Luther said darkly, in his 'I'm-disappointed-in-you' tone. "Just tell us what's going on, we can handle it."

"_Fine_," Five snapped, "You want to know what I'm doing? I researching Number Eight's death."

Predictably, Diego sucked in a sharp breath and Luther paused, opened his mouth to speak, and then stopped. Five barrelled on, "I mean, she knew she was going to die," he ranted, forgetting momentarily that his brothers were in the room, "she _knew_ and she had a plan. I don't think she banked on having the Commission there, because her plan regarded Dad killing her—he was the one with the terminate order. She was going to reveal everything on live TV, you know that right?"

"_What?_" Luther asked, "No, Dad wouldn't have her killed."

"Really Luther?" Diego asked, incredulous. "You're still defending that bastard after everything he's done."

“I’m just saying,” Luther insisted, “that Dad wouldn’t do that.”

“And I’m saying that I have proof that he did.” Five announced. "I've got the terminate order here with two names on it: Dad's and Percy's.

"What? Give it." Diego asked holding an insistent hand out. Five ignored it. 

"You remember how no one could keep secrets from Percy?" Five asked waiting as they both nodded, only once he'd gotten confirmation from both Luther and Diego did he continue. "Well, she wrote every single one down. All I have to do is translate and decode them."

Both Luther and Diego sat there dumbfounded. Both went to speak, but Five got up and packed away all the papers and boxes of Percy's stolen treasures.

"We'll stop by your place, Diego," Five announced. "I want to see if you've taken anything that could be a clue—Percy said she'd hidden them in amongst our things and you are right here."

* * *

Eudora Patch (detective with a strong moral system) checked her watch for the fifth time. It had been five slow minutes since she'd called and left a message and she was nearly sick and tired of waiting. She tapped her foot, impatient, as she waited. She was sure that there was something fishy going on here, but she didn't have proof. Or at least, not enough proof.

Ten minutes later, Diego's car pulled up and he walked through the door, spotted her and came over to speak. He opened his mouth but she held up a hand. "Shut up." Eudora said, "Just, cover me, okay?"

* * *

Percy and Ben watched, proud, as Klaus spoke to the ghosts (Percy translated the ones that Klaus didn't understand) and he turned the tables on his torturers. They had been able to feel, minute by minute, as Klaus got soberer and soberer. The flickering beacon got brighter and brighter and more and more ghosts turned up to answer the call. Percy's energy levels rose.

"I remember!" Cha-Cha said, "Forward. Reverse!"

"Yeah, that's it!" Klaus laughed to himself softly and Percy and Ben watched proudly. "Yeah! And his wife... escaped down an alleyway." Klaus turned to Hazel. "He says to say thank you."

"What is he talking about?" Cha-Cha asked in a dangerously low tone.

"I don't know." Hazel choked out.

"He was so grateful to you, Hazel, for having spared his wife." Klaus turned his attention back to Cha-Cha. "You know, there may be hope for him yet. Don't you think?"

"Bathroom now," Cha-Cha announced.

"Nicely done." Ben praised, Klaus soaked it up with a soft "thank you."

A few minutes later Klaus tried Cha-Cha's patience a second too long, and she taped his mouth with the duct tape before returning to the bathroom. As soon as the door slammed Klaus scooted his chair over to the table and looked around and out the window. Two shadows passed by the window and Klaus started making muffled screams. The shadows didn't pause, so Klaus started slamming his head on the table.

Outside, Diego and Eudora paused and moved back to Room 225. Diego moved to kick the door down but Eudora flagged the cleaning lady for the key and unlocked it. They both entered through the door, sneaking in near silence.

"Klaus?" Diego whisper-asked as he pulled off the tape and freed Klaus from the chair. "Why are you here?"

"They're in the bathroom, two of them." Klaus hissed, crawling into the air vent.

"Go to my place." Diego hissed, acknowledging Klaus' statement.

"Police!" Eudora yelled, "Drop the gun, or you're going down!"

Diego spun around to watch her back as Hazel dropped his gun and knelt in surrender. Years of acting as a vigilante meant that Diego heard Cha-Cha's footsteps and he threw his knife, causing Cha-Cha to drop her gun and cry out. Hazel kicked his gun over to Eudora, who picked it up and pocketed it. Diego arrested both Hazel and Cha-Cha as Eudora called in backup.

Percy, watching invisibly, planted ideas in Cha-Cha and Hazel's heads, ideas to confess and lay all the facts out about the commission into Cha-Cha's head. Hazel got ideas to confess but leave Cha-Cha to take the brunt of the charges. Then, immediately after, Percy left. Following Klaus' beacon to the bus where she was just in time to latch onto Ben and Klaus as the latter opened the stolen briefcase. Destination: Vietnam 1968.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Happy birthday to me!! (I'm 15 as of the 30/12, yay!!)_
> 
> As you can see there is a number of chapters. That is an estimate and will likely change. but maybe not, depending on how long it gets.


	10. A Vietnam Interlude by the lovely Dave Katz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter this time, short and simple. Fair warning, romance is not my forte.

When Dave Katz first saw Klaus Hargreeves (though Dave didn’t know his name) he thought he must still be dreaming. A man as stunningly beautiful, dressed like he was and looking so lost—that was someone Dave could help, someone he could like.

Dave only got to watch the strange man flounder for a few seconds before the alarms went off and suddenly the whole area came alive with movement; guns firing, people shouting, clothes being shoved towards the new man.

"Chaz, get this man operational. And get him a pair of pants! Let's go!"

During the ensuing battle, Dave lost track of the man, though he hoped that he survived, and when Dave spotted him on the bus to wherever it was they were going he was quite excited.

“Just get in country?” Dave lent closer and pat him on the arm so the new man could tell he was speaking to him.

"Oh, uh..." the man said dumbly, and oh geez, has Dave started liking a complete dumbass? "Yeah."

"Yeah," Dave replied, "shit's crazy. I know."

"Yeah!" the man agreed.

"You'll adjust." Dave said, holding out his hand, "I'm Dave."

The man took Dave's hand and shook it strongly, "Klaus." 

That was the start of a beautiful friendship that soon blossomed into something far greater than Dave could have ever expected.

* * *

Months of fighting tirelessly in a war that none of them wanted to be in meant that their brief break in Saigon was all the more welcome.

For weeks Dave had been pining after Klaus, trying to drop as many hints as he could without anyone else finding out. It had been majorly unsuccessful. Dave had known within a week that Klaus was definitely _not_ straight. He still had no idea whether Klaus was even into guys like him, but he figured that it was safer to mention something.

So on their trip to Saigon (after quite a bit of alcohol), Dave kissed Klaus in a hidden corner of the disco they were at. It was just as amazing as Dave thought it would be and it got ten times better when Klaus returned the kiss.

* * *

The longer Dave and Klaus were in Vietnam the more Dave noticed odd things about his new boyfriend.

Klaus often spoke to thin air, and when asked about it, Klaus simply introduced Dave to a ‘Persephone’ and ‘Ben’. When questioned further, Klaus admitted to Dave that Percy and Ben were his siblings and that they’d died many years before. After that Dave distracted Klaus when he got lost to far in his head. Distracted him from the screaming of the ghosts. Though Dave simply thought it was schizophrenia, not the actual ghosts of the deceased.

Dave had also noticed that Klaus often spoke of things that were, quite frankly, terrifying. He spoke of child soldiers and murder, of training under his Dad. Of siblings ignored and others who kill for attention and love. 

On one particular night Dave and Klaus were both on night watch and Dave asked about his dead siblings again. Earlier Dave had watched as Klaus held a full conversation with his brother and sister, only stopping when he noticed Dave standing in the entryway.

“What were they like?” Dave asked, curious for an answer; he did not ask, _’did you miss them when they were taken from you? Did you cry for them; for the lives taken too soon?’_ Dave did not say, _‘how long did it take before you started to see them?’_

“They were amazing.” Klaus replied in his rare bouts of complete honesty. It had been a long while since he’d had any strong drugs. War just wasn’t the place for drugs that Klaus didn’t know well enough; Dave knew that Klaus had told him. “Percy was our protector. She drew Dad’s attention away from us when we needed. She was the most often hurt.”

Dave listened intently even as Klaus continued, “She died when we were fourteen. Half a year after our brother vanished. She was killed by a gunshot to the head. Ben died two years later, Dad sent him off on a mission with Luther and Diego and only two came back. Ben brought us together as a family and his death broke us apart.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Dave gripped Klaus’ hand. “There must have been happy memories somewhere?”

“You.” Klaus replied, “You’re the happiest memory I have.”

* * *

Reality came crashing down every time they followed orders to fight, as death after unforgiving death occurred until—almost ten months after Klaus dropped into Dave’s life—the two of them and a couple of others were the only ones still alive from when Klaus appeared.

Time after time they fought in battle after battle and every time they did they came out alive and mostly unscathed. The most memorable battle the two of them fought was one particularly terrifying one.

Dave didn’t remember what happened before or after but he remembered that moment in great detail. A large bruise on his chest didn’t help in forgetting either.

He and Klaus were simply shooting when a figure of a teen girl appeared, her curly black hair in a long braid and tan olive skin glowing with a faint blue light. She had a rainbow tie-dyed oversized hoodie and comfy well-worn boots. Her hand, clenched in fists, glowed purple as a bullet went through her chest and slowed until it hit Dave with a painful hit. It didn’t break the skin; in another life, this would be the moment he died, in this one it just left a bruise.

“You’re welcome, Dave.” The girl said brightly, answering his thought, and the bullet floated towards her and then went flying back to where it came from. “Nice to meet you, though, I’m Persephone.”

Her form flickered once, then twice, then vanished. Dave’s mind seemed to burst under what he’d just seen. Once they were back in the tent Dave told Klaus what had happened. He showed the blossoming bruise and Klaus went pale.

“We’re leaving.” He said, “I can’t lose you. How much longer do you have on your tour?”

“We can’t desert! We’ve nowhere to go!” Dave said, insistent, “I’ve only got to the end of the week, then I go back to the states.”

“We wait until then.” Klaus announced. “Then we meet your parents and…” he dropped his voice to a low whisper, “when I come from, we could get married if you want.”

Dave was at a loss for words. He wanted that but he knew that it would be the last time he saw anyone from this decade. Klaus had told him a month ago that he came from the future via a time travel briefcase and now, after seeing the figure of the girl, Dave believed him without question.

“Yes,” he whispered again, “I’ll tell my parents everything and then we’ll go.”

* * *

The end of the week came and went without another incident and when Klaus and Dave were back stateside they stayed for a month with Dave’s parents and sisters before bidding them goodbye. Dave gripped Klaus’ hand and watched as two ghosts gripped Klaus’ other hand. It had taken a month and a week for Klaus to learn how to summon his ghostly siblings with reasonable reliability. The briefcase fell open and they were teleported back to the bus Klaus had told him about.

The man’s newspaper told the same date as to when Klaus had left from and Dave squeezed his fiancé’s hand.

“We’re here,” Klaus said softly, kissing Dave, “Welcome to the twenty-first century, love.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Dave lives!! Dave Katz and Eudora Patch deserve the world and they will live to see it.
> 
> This chapter is so brief because I know nothing really about Vietnam and I don't want to put out wrong information framed as though it is truth. If I have made a mistake I would love it if you guys reading this could point it out.


	11. 4 Days

Klaus led Dave to Diego’s boiler room twelve hours after he was meant to be there. It was still early in the morning and Percy realised with a jolt that there were four days left before the apocalypse. She’d gone back to being incorporeal—being seen by the living still freaked her out a bit—but Ben had chosen to stay corporeal and followed along beside Klaus and Dave.

They were directed downstairs by Al and Ben went back to being incorporeal. Klaus knocked and all four listened for a reply. Nothing. Ben walked through the door and back out again.

“Nothing.” He told Klaus and Percy, “No one’s home.”

“Right.” Klaus said and to Dave’s questioning look he continued, “We’ll head over to the academy then, no one’s here.”

* * *

They snuck in through the front door and settled themselves into Klaus’ bedroom, Ben and Percy both going corporeal and going through their belongings. Less than five minutes later Diego was hammering on Klaus’ door. Ben and Percy stood aside to watch.

“Klaus!” Diego yelled at the top of his lungs, “Klaus! If you’re there you better come out now!”

“I’m pansexual and in a happy and loving relationship with a guy!” Klaus shouted back, Dave covered his ears and looked mildly terrified but overall pleased.

“Not what I meant but I still support you!”

A minute later with no Klaus-in-the-hallway, Diego yelled again; “You decent?”

“Yes, Diego,” Klaus rolled his eyes, “I’ll be out in a minute, just let me figure out where this fancy letter opener is going.”

The door was swung open and everyone got a good look at every one. Diego had been crying, his eyes red-rimmed and glistening slightly. Klaus and Dave looked healthy and happy, the bruise on Dave’s chest all but gone, and there were no other injuries. Even the cracks in their mirrors from the war had been repaired as best as Percy could.

“It’s been twelve hours.” Diego said, voice steady despite the tears, “I told you to go to my apartment and yet you leave to get high then turn up twelve hours later? Everyone’s been searching for you. When you didn’t turn up we asked Eudora, and all of our siblings—even Vanya got involved—to help look.”

Klaus looked abashed, “Look, I’m sorry I vanished but I swear I’m not high, I am completely sober I promise. I can prove it,” He continued hurriedly, “I can make the ghosts corporeal now.”

“Who’s that,” Diego asked, ignoring the final part of what Klaus had said.

“Hi,” Dave held his hand out to shake, “I’m Dave Katz, I met Klaus during the war.”

Diego didn’t seem to know what to think, and to be honest, it wasn’t that surprising.

“Family meeting, five minutes.” He finally decided on, and that was a valid option. “bring your _friend._”

* * *

Five minutes later brought the whole family, Dave and Eudora into the living room. Every single person stared at Dave and checked Klaus over for injuries, when they found neither injury nor answer the silence got longer and a little bit more stifling.

Five was carrying the bag with all of their boxes and the notebooks and looked as though he hadn’t slept in a month. Luther opened his mouth to speak but ultimately decided to rethink and closed it again. Allison, Eudora and Vanya held coffee, all taking sips and looking like they’d rather be anywhere else. Diego closed the door after Dave had walked in—unknowingly closing it halfway through Percy; who’s a pissed-off look made Ben laugh.

“I can explain!” Klaus said loudly, Five raised an eyebrow as he ran a critical eye over Klaus and Dave.

“You did it, then?” He asked, getting straight to the point, “You stole their briefcase?”

Klaus nodded and turned to Dave, “what was the year again?”

“You mean nineteen sixty-eight?”

Absolute silence. Then everyone spoke over each other leaving the room bursting with noise.

“**_Enough!_** Just… be quiet.” Ben yelled going corporeal. Everyone shut up again as they stared at him. A murmur went around the room as Percy appeared next to Five.

“Thanks, Ben.” Percy pat Five on the arm and he flinched in surprise, “To summarise, we stole the briefcase, time-travelled to nineteen sixty-eight, met a nice soldier named Dave Katz, Dave and Klaus got together in Saigon, Klaus got clean because war is not the time to be high, Dave nearly died but because Klaus was sober he summoned me and I could use my telekinesis with the same precision as I used to be able to, _(life is so weird),_ Dave’s tour ended and we all followed him back to his house, told his parents, said goodbye to his parents, opened the briefcase and went to Diego’s house. No one was home so we came here. Is that all?”

Dave, Klaus and Ben all nodded. Dave spoke next with a soft: “That’s pretty accurate actually.”

“You forgot the whole engagement thing but overall that was great!” Klaus laughed clapping his hands, “So what has happened since then?”

“Well for one—“ Five broke off with a thoughtful look towards Percy, after a moment he slammed her notebook onto the coffee table. Everyone jumped, Dave and Klaus went very pale and Five muttered a soft apology. “This is yours; decode it.”

“_Please_,” Ben interjected, taking advantage of their siblings’ stunned silence.

“Please.” Five rolled his eyes and turned back to Percy. “Persephone, you told me I needed this if anything happened to you, help me.”

Percy seemed to sigh. She opened the notebook and smiled slightly at the writing. “Of course I didn’t bank on it being seventeen years but this is still relevant. Have you given them their boxes?”

Five shook his head and opened his bag. He gave each sibling a box and watched as they went through every item, from the bears to the papers and the photos. By the end, Percy was looking very much like she wanted to run away. Each sibling, (including Ben) look through the boxes multiple times—the hoards of stuff that Percy had stolen and kept.

Klaus held up his “essay”. It had been written when Klaus was a very high thirteen-year-old. It was meant to be on drug use and what it does to the mind but in reality, Klaus had simply handed in a page with a shaky “i do what i want fuckers” in big letters across the middle.

Dave took the page and laughed; “I knew I liked you for a reason, Klaus.” 

“Babe!” Klaus says affronted and that breaks the tension easily.

Twenty minutes later Percy slams her pen down and pushes the notebook to Five.

“Look, some of that is—nevermind, just don’t be mad.” Then to not be stared at she goes back to being incorporeal.

Five opens the book and everyone crowds around as he starts to read.

“Number One,” Five reads, “is motivated by praise, especially by Pogo and Dad. He does not remember anything that could be useful about Seven. Nor does he understand that a team has to be equals. He believes that he is the leader, and in his mind leader is someone like Dad. A dictator with a narrow mindset. As a result, he will take Dad’s side in everything. 

“He believes he is the perfect soldier and attempts to make Dad into a better person. The Golden Child. He will react with apprehension to any information he is given. One will tell Dad everything, must not let anything of importance slip to him especially things that have to be kept from Dad. One is terrified of being perceived as a failure.”

Klaus stares at Percy. Ben does too.

“Is that how you saw me?” Luther asks, “an extension of Dad? Not trustworthy enough to be a friend?”

“I’m sorry Luther,” Percy says to the room, “But if I had told you that I thought Dad was wrong about training or about the piece of paper I stole off his desk would you have told on me?”

Luther thinks for a long moment, then frowns. “Yes, but Dad’s right in training us, and stealing is wrong.”

She levels a look at him and raises and eyebrow.

“Number Two,” Five continues sharply, “relies on Grace too much. Grace has programming that prevents her from disobeying. If Two tells Grace anything it will get back to Dad. Even if he tells her to keep a secret there’s nothing to keep Dad or Pogo from looking through Grace’s memories. Two is hell-bent on trying to one-up One. He hates living in the shadows and is impulsive. Not to be trusted with important secrets. Can count on taking the opposite side to Luther, no matter the circumstances.” 

This time it’s Diego who stares at Percy.

“‘Not to be trusted’?” He repeats, “‘impulsive’?”

“You are.” Percy admits, “and I wrote that when we were six, otherwise I would’ve put rebellious and unable to deal with authority figures, even those who are work bosses and teachers.”

“‘Unable to deal’ what?”

“Number Three!” Five once again interrupts a growing argument. “Is perhaps the most dangerous of all of my siblings. The ability to take away free will and control people to her every whim is perhaps the scariest thing imaginable. Three uses this power to raise herself to a favoured position. She takes One’s side in everything as both are oblivious to the abuse in this house. Three is a person to avoid, let alone tell secrets and information to.”

This time Percy just doesn’t appear, and Klaus confirms that she left the room.

“She thinks I’m scary?” Allison asked, “Five is there anyone she says is safe to tell secrets to?” 

Five doesn’t say anything, but he does look away without meeting her eyes.

“Number Four is unable to see possibilities. He is stuck with seeing gruesome spectres and cannot control these spirits. As a result of this, he also has hearing problems, with his main form of understanding a crude form of lipreading and facial expressions. He also doesn’t think before he speaks so he is likely to blurt out secrets, and he talks in his sleep—something the microphones pick up. Four doesn’t understand fully the game Five, Dad and I are playing. He would be unable to integrate himself in. Not one to tell secrets too.” Five frowned.

“What does the game mean, Five?” Vanya asks, “You, Percy and Dad had been playing a game, what is it?”

“I don’t know.” Five replies, equally mystified. He flipped through the book until he finds an entry, then reads it out. “First move: Reginald Hargreeves buys eight babies with supernatural abilities. Second move: I recognise that this is not a natural upbringing and start cataloguing the reactions of everyone around me.”

“Is this a crude form of chess but with us as players?” Allison asked incredulously. Five shrugged and continued reading.

“Third move: Hargreeves starts our education at two. This is also not natural. Ordinary children start at four to six. Forth move: I use the education to learn more about strategy and history. My stories are my attempts to tell my siblings something. They do not understand. Fifth move: group training. Hargreeves is using us against each other. We are told to compete against each other. One and Seven excel, both having brutal and offensive uses to their powers but Three uses her rumours to get the upper hand occasionally.” 

“One _and Seven_ excel?” Vanya asked curiously. 

“Sixth move:” Five continues, interested. “Individual training. We are each alone. I can use my powers to drive a person mad or to kill them outright. We tested it. I could kill Dad now but that would separate us I wouldn’t be able to protect them. Seventh move: I wish I killed Dad earlier. He has destroyed Seven. He took her away, told Three that Seven’s powers have been tearing her apart. Three rumoured her into believing she was ordinary. Dad has violated her. I can’t fault Three, she believed she was saving her sister’s life.”

There was a long silence as they all absorbed what they had just read. A long silence was broken by Ben.

“It’s true,” he said, “She told me the moment I died. Klaus was too high to remember.”

Five looked down at the book and went very pale. “Eighth move:” he said and everyone turned to listen, “I told Seven and Five about her powers and how they’re being suppressed. Ninth move: Five confronted Dad. Dad got Three to rumour Five and Seven again. He told me if I told anyone or dropped any hints he would severely injure, kill or get rid of Seven. He said she was useless and it would be no great loss. He believes he was telling the truth. I won’t risk it. Tenth move: there’s a new player. Five took the blame for something he didn’t do. I have to stay a step ahead of him now.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” Percy had come back. Everyone jumped. “I didn’t want to risk Dad following through on his promise.”

It was Diego who asked the question they were all thinking.

“What are Vanya’s powers then?”

“Sound waves.” Percy answered, “suppressed through rumours unknowingly told and mood dampening medication knowingly given. So Vanya, that audition? You should give it a go.”

Percy and Ben left again as the family meeting came to a close. Just straight up vanished into thin air, left nothing behind but the knowledge that they had always been there watching and waiting.

* * *

Vanya stood in front of the judges, her violin case in hand, a song in mind.

“What is your name again?”

“Vanya.” Vanya’s voice wasn’t loud and it was to no one’s surprise that she was asked to say it louder.

“Right. Well?”

She put her violin to her shoulder lifted her bow and began to play. Immediately she knew something was different; she could feel the music dancing within her, and she could hear everything so much clearer.

The judgers were spell-bound, sitting on the edge of their seats, listening intently. 

_"It’s whether you’ve got something special." Helen had said that day in the bathroom. “And maybe you just… don’t.”_

Well, maybe she did now.

The song ended and all three of the judges sat back in their chairs, thinking.

Vanya allowed a small smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're getting closer to the end!!
> 
> feel free to ask any question you like.


	12. 3 Days

She’d made it. First Chair of the orchestra. She wondered who she could tell, Five and Percy were still pouring over the notes Percy’d left them. Even so, Percy was incorporeal more often than not. Ben was on a mission to read every single book in the library before the apocalypse arrived. Even if one of the two ghosts were free, Vanya wanted to avoid them as best as she could. With Klaus so far away, they’d started to look like the moment they’d died. It was definitely freaking everyone out. So who could she tell? She had no friends, simply acquaintances and work colleagues. Allison was trying to get in contact with Claire. Luther and Diego wouldn’t understand what first chair meant and she didn’t know Detective Patch. She thought about telling Leonard, but she hadn’t spoken to him in days and it wasn’t like they were friends. She couldn’t even tell Klaus or Dave because they had gone searching for the remaining members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Vanya didn’t pretend to understand, but they’d said they would be gone for a couple of days, and ordered them to not burn the house/world down while they were gone.

Out of all of them, Five had to be the one most stressed about the coming apocalypse. He was certainly nearing the end of his tether, teleporting out for coffee every couple of hours as the walls of his room steadily turned into a wall of chalk. Luther was next, hovering over Five’s shoulder, asking continuously if he could help with anything. Percy seemed certain that they’d manage to succeed—she believed that with _Vanya_ included, nothing could beat the collective umbrella academy.

That thought had Vanya coming up short. It seemed that Ben wholeheartedly agreed with his ghostly sister, no matter that Vanya couldn’t remember what her powers _were_, let alone how to control them.

She’d tell Allison.

Vanya nodded to herself, Allison wouldn’t be able to be on the phone all day, and she probably knew what first chair was. Along with the fact, the two were trying to be better sisters, both for each other and Percy.

_Percy._

To Vanya, Persephone had always felt like the older sister, never mind the fact that she was Number Eight; the last to arrive, the last in line. Now, though, Percy had never seemed so small. She acted young, she looked young, and even though she was taller than Vanya—always had been—Vanya had never felt so much older.

* * *

Eudora was beginning to hate the Hargreeves’ discourse. She’d hung around to see if there was anything she (as a detective) could do. She regretted it as soon as the supernatural had gotten involved. As soon as the first ghost appeared she knew this would be a long day. Add in the time-travelling soldiers and murderous parents, and Eudora was officially regretting even laying eyes on the Hargreeves family.

_Time travel?_ Somehow, it didn’t surprise her, _everything about the Hargreeves was strange and unnatural, why not add in aliens too and make it a sci-fi? Go above and beyond._

The thought made her laugh. Beeman watched her curiously, and she turned exhausted eyes to him.

“What?” She asked, slightly too fast.

“Nothing,” Beeman replied, “You need coffee? You look dead on your feet.”

“Gee thanks, Chuck,” Eudora replied sarcastically, then her tone softened, “actually, yeah, that would be great.”

A couple of minutes later, Beeman returned with a coffee, just as Eudora had given up on the case she was working. A simple case of finding the boy the two killers in the holding cells had been looking for. Not so simple after all, the boy was a complete mystery, no fingerprints could be tied to the kid, all the people that had been there (besides the mystery child) had been fingerprinted and the only prints that were still unknown had been the ones from the 1938 cold case.

_The 1938 cold case_. How could she have forgotten? Beeman had said it right at the beginning, the fingerprints matched.

"Thanks, Chuck," Eudora absently took the coffee, "do you have the cold case that the fingerprints matched on hand?"

Beeman turned to his desk, shuffling through files until he found the one she'd requested. "Yeah, why?"

Eudora took it and flicked through until she found what she was looking for.

"That little fucker!"

* * *

Five wrote the final line on his wall. The one that painted _Vanya_ as being the cause of the apocalypse. Vanya, Five's favourite sibling, as being the person who caused the hellscape that Five had grown up in. Vanya, who cried when they stepped on ants as children.

“Vanya?” Five said out loud. “_Vanya_ causing the _apocalypse_?”

It couldn’t be, but the math didn’t lie. Sure there was some room for error, but Five was certain that this algorithm was absolutely correct.

It was at that moment that Five noticed _just_ how exhausted he was. Coffee wouldn’t fix this one—he needed sleep, and he knew if he didn’t sleep soon he’d collapse.

Vanya and the apocalypse were problems for another day.

* * *

Dave still couldn’t believe he’d gotten this lucky. To be able to _show_ his love for his fiancé, to show the whole world that _this_ is who they were, to look God in the eye and say _fuck you_.

Now, they were in 2019, far away from the bombs and shells of war, searching for those they’d known during the most frightening time of their lives. Searching for the soldiers who'd shared drinks with Dave and cigarettes with Klaus, searching for the friends who'd listened to Klaus spin stories about his siblings (all true, told as fiction). They were in 2019, and in 1968 they had planned a fantasy wedding that would become a reality in the coming months.

They were in 2019 and Dave was in a whole new world.

Klaus led the way through the library, asking the librarian about the Vietnam War, and specifically the 173rd Division, please? Dave followed, mind whirling at the possibilities, there was nothing he couldn’t do—information and possibilities at his fingertips, the world at his feet. Klaus’ hand in his; their fingers interlocked, neither willing to be the first to let go.

Dave had spoken to Ben the most out of all of Klaus’ siblings, Percy shy with the living, and the others too new for him to gain the courage. Ben had told Klaus’ stories with more reality than Klaus did, but Dave didn’t care. For him, Ben and Percy were the most loyal, sticking by Klaus when no one else did. Dave had been shocked at how young the siblings had been when they died—when he saw Percy in a calmer environment he saw just how _young_ she was, just how much life she’d missed out on. Ben was the same, only two years longer in life, that wasn't enough, _never enough_.

Dave didn’t know what to think. He’d seen the statues in the courtyard and thought them poor representations, pale imitations compared to the depth of the ghosts, compared to how much pure _soul_ the two showed in every expression, how much pride and love they held for each of their siblings.

Everything Dave saw had him falling just a bit further in love with life and Klaus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super short because i just havent been happy with it. Sitting on this one for more than a month, it's time to just get it out on here


	13. April Fools Day

On April 1st 2019, Persephone Hargreeves watched the sunrise. 

The world was silent, the only sound the chirping of birds and the hum of electricity. The occasional car flew past, but for the most part, Percy was alone with her thoughts. Alone with the secrets that ran through her mind.

“I thought I’d find you here,” Dave was watching her, and it was then that she realised—to properly feel the morning she’d become corporeal.

“I didn’t realise you knew me so well.” It wasn’t a question, but it might as well have been because Dave answered it anyway. 

_She didn’t say, ’You shouldn’t be here,’ but she wanted to, oh did she want to._

“I’ve been talking to Ben and Klaus remember,” He says, sitting down next to her.

“I remember.” 

_She didn’t say, 'I never forget.’ she wanted to say, ’I can’t forget.’ but the words stuck in her throat._

Dave looked out to the sunrise, for a long moment there was no sound save the song of one brave bird.

“I remember watching the sunrise back in 1968,” he said, softer than before, as though if he spoke quietly he could preserve the peace of the morning, “I remember thinking that it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen—what could beat the sunrise? Not much, that’s for sure. I remember thinking if only I could share that moment with those who I love, that moment of peace—where anything’s possible. In Vietnam, I remember thinking: ‘The sun rose in the morning and set in the evening, and had done so for the past couple billion years. Bad things had come before and would come again. Things always got better, always had, always would. That won’t stop now. My life didn’t have to end just because things weren’t great.’”

A pause before Percy spoke. She spoke in the same whisper as Dave, eyes on the horizon, never leaving the colours spreading into the cloud. 

“I thought I wanted it to end,” Percy twisted her hands together as Dave looked at her curiously and sadly, but her gaze didn’t budge, “I thought that without me, everything would be okay. I could’ve stopped it, but I thought that without my lies and manipulation everything would be better.”

“And it wasn’t?”

“Nothing _changed_,” She spat, “They did the same things! Dad hurt them, they broke apart and I couldn’t do _anything._” Dave listened as she spoke, “I didn’t help them by losing everything, I just got myself out. I made everything worse. Vanya secluded herself, Ben died, Klaus turned to harsher drugs, Diego stopped talking, Luther pushed himself towards Dad, and Allison turned to Hollywood fame and stardom. I was selfish, I gave up.”

Dave just watched her carefully, but Percy couldn’t deal with the sad looks Dave shot her way and dropped her corporeality. Dave blinked, startled, but recognised it as her way of telling him she didn’t want to hear his wisdom. He left her to her thoughts, the sun high enough in the sky for there to be no more colours.

* * *

Five had taken to following Vanya around, and when she questioned him, he claimed that he wanted to spend his final days with his favourite sibling. Vanya took to teaching him how to play the violin, and Percy joined in when she could stand social interaction. She’d visited Vanya’s music school, and there had been a couple of dead musicians that she took skills off. As a result, Percy could easily pick up how to play the instruments that Five pointed out.

All of them had been invited to Vanya’s performance later that evening, and in a rare show of support, the Hargreeves family got nine seats. One for each member (including the ghosts) and two extras for Dave and Eudora, both of whom had become regulars around the house—especially after Eudora had come flying in and flagging Five down as a major suspect for a previously unsolved case. Five had explained, in horrific detail, and Eudora had sorted everything out so that her open case was solved without outing him as the reason for several murders; mostly because if she were to tell her boss that this thirteen-year-old was the murderer from a cold case from more than eighty years earlier she’d probably be flagged as insane.

So, as it happened, the group of ten met outside the theatre in one big group, ready to take their seats. Vanya led the way, Luther, directly behind her, stuck out like a sore thumb, but a shining beacon to lead the way to their seats. Once they got there, Vanya vanished to take her place. They’d gotten end seats, to accommodate for Luther’s ridiculous height, and the two empty seats next to Five and Klaus were soon filled by the ghostly siblings.

There was silence as the orchestra took their seats, the Hargreeves plus two were silent in awe as they watched their sister play. They listened in amazement as Vanya played her solo.

* * *

_Depending on where our story starts, it’s about love, familial between siblings, romantic between partners.  
Of a love of life, and respect for the dead._

* * *

It was for that reason that the first scream felt so loud.

Luther spun around first, but only by a couple of seconds before the others.

“The Commission.” Five whispered. A deafeningly loud sound in Percy’s ears. Diego and Eudora jumped up and started to hurry people to the emergency exits, knowing that the commission wouldn’t care about collateral damage—not on the day the apocalypse was scheduled to happen.

The first gunshots sprayed into the crowd and shocked everyone into silence and fear. Klaus, Ben, Percy and Dave reacted the most, slamming everyone nearby down behind chairs. Eudora and Five not far behind.

“I heard a rumour,” Percy heard Allison gasp out to any civilians nearby, “that you ran for the exits and didn’t get shot.”

Two rows bolted for the doors and the commission agents didn’t shoot them, aiming instead for collateral damage.

* * *

_Depending on where our story starts, it’s about life and death and the veil between._

* * *

Percy snuck a look towards the stage, and what she saw nearly chilled her to the bone. Vanya had lost the little control she had over her powers, and she was glowing white, using the music to gather her abilities. Vanya was staring at the firefight and her face was blank but Percy knew she was furious about her family’s predicament.

* * *

_Depending on where our story starts, it’s about a woman who sold her child to a man who she believed would care for the baby._

* * *

Ben let the horror loose as soon as all the living audience members managed to get out. Percy was quick to fight as many of the Commission agents she could, taking down one after the other.

* * *

_Or maybe,_

* * *

Endless waves of gun-wielding commission agents flooded the building, as the music sped up Vanya drawing energy from the sound of gunfire and the ever-present violin music.

* * *

_depending on where our story starts, it’s about a girl and her family,_

* * *

A lucky shot nailed Luther in the chest and he went down in a heap of limbs and broken chairs. Klaus gripped his ghost and yanked him back into corporality. The agent who killed Luther got a punch to the face by an angry ghostly Luther.

* * *

_competing for the love and respect of a man incapable of either,_

* * *

Vanya let out an inhuman scream and a shockwave of white power burst from around her. The commission agents died, the shockwave passing peacefully through the Hargreeves siblings and killing everyone else, regardless of the threat level. Dave and Eudora survived but everyone else just collapsed to the floor lifelessly.

* * *

_tearing each other down, and building themselves back up,_

* * *

Luther, Percy and Ben faded from view, and the three of them followed the bright light until they realised what was happening.

Vanya had sent out a shockwave that killed everyone on the planet except those who she deemed appropriate. Namely, those who had come to her performance to watch her.

The three of them returned to the theatre to see the only living people on the planet crowded around Vanya.

“Is she dead?” Percy slipped into corporeality easily, fear fuelling the three ghostly siblings.

Allison looked up and relaxed at the sight of the three of them. The ghosts joined the circle of the living.

* * *

_loving from afar, arguing when together,_

* * *

Hundreds of kilometres away, in LA, Claire watched as her father died, seconds before the wave of power hit her in the chest and she followed him onto the growing list of the deceased.

* * *

_but all in all, no matter what,_

* * *

“I can take us back!” Five told them as they huddled together with the theatre raining down around them, the world was eerily silent.

“Where?” Klaus replied, gripping Dave and Vanya’s hands, “When?”

“To before this all began,” Five explained, holding onto Allison and Diego.

* * *

_this is a story about love._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, this has been a long story, but now it has been completed. Hope you all liked it! I certainly have enjoyed writing it.
> 
> This is one I will come back to and probably make slight adjustments!

**Author's Note:**

> I've set it up so there's a possible sequel, but I'm not sure what's going to happen at the moment.
> 
> If any of you guys want a sequel just mention it and that would most likely motivate me to do so. Flattery will get you everywhere.


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